story

"It's probably fine but you're probably right, or at least you're saying something close enough to what I've been saying this whole time" is the closest I usually get to a compliment, these days, so I'll take it.

Dr. DVD

I really hope you're right in this regard. There is actually a chance that when you factor in shared passwords and accounts, MORE people might see this movie than if it were released in theaters.

Jay G.

I think for studios, there's the concern of committing a lot of money upfront for something that could fail, vs paying a bit more overall, but only if the first film is already a known success. On the one hand you save on sets, but on the other you're also paying the cast and crew for two movies instead of just having then "under contract" for a second film. And it's also a larger commit for the cast at once, so you maybe have to pay them more to not take another film, or multiple other films they could be doing instead, etc.

There's also the idea that a studio is only going to have so much money year-to-year, and a budget, and the general idea is that the films they produce and release one year generate the revenue to fund the next year's movies. So if Dune had been a more traditional theatrical only release, the funds it brought in could then be turned around to fund the sequel. Tying up funds this year on Dune part 2 when Dune part 1 hasn't been released means they have less funds to spend on other movies until part 2 is released and starts generating revenue.

Even for LOTR, I recall they had to rebuild sets or parts of sets for the reshoots each year. And then there was The Hobbit, where they had to go back and recreate Hobbiton and Rivendale. So no matter your planning and shooting as much at once, you're likely going to have to rebuild something.

I'm not sure how the Harry Potter films handled this exactly, but I know they never greenlit the next one until the previous one was released, except for the final two-parter for book 7. I know sets can be broken down and stored (you don't want to tie up a whole stage year round), and even if you don't keep the set, you can store the props a lot more easily, which likely helps sell any recreated set.

It probably does also help with Dune that the early sets on the planet Caladan won't need to be recreated for part 2.

Josh-da-man

Yeah, at the time they making Lord of the Rings, there was no plan to make The Hobbit. The rights to that book were tied up with MGM, and I don't think it was even on the table back when the LOTR films were in production.

I've heard that, too. It's kind of mind-blowing; by the second or third movie it was pretty obvious that the film series was going to be huge. Maybe they were nervous about J. K. Rowling pulling a George R. R. Martin, and slowing down her output and not finishing the series. Those final three books did come out at a slower pace than the first four. Then they would have to worry about the kids aging out of their roles, or the older actor dying or being to ill to work as the years between books dragged on.

Or, more likely, it was just Warners being Warners.

Dr. DVD

Something that isn't being mentioned much on here is the fact that WB doesn't really have too much of a financial stake in this movie compared to Legendary, hence the major conflict that arose when it was announced that both this and Godzilla vs. Kong would be doing a day and date release. According to this article Legendary is actually the studio that financed most of this movie. So if that is the case, there is a chance they have already been paid a significant amount of money so the movie could stream and could possibly decide to move ahead with the sequel with or without WB. I don't know for certain how much was paid by WB to Legendary to avoid a lawsuit over these movies, but I doubt Legendary was willing to let them go without some kind of "special deal". In that regard, even if this movie gets a lot of streaming views, WB could use the lack of good theatrical return as an excuse to not move forward simply because they're vindictive. WB is making it very difficult for YouTubers to talk about Dune without slapping them with copyright infringement warnings, and these are fans trying to help generate interest in the movie!

Jay G.

The issue with The Hobbit was that the film rights were split: Saul Zaentz had production rights to The Hobbit, but that distribution rights still belonged to United Artists. UA was sold to MGM, while Miramax, and then New Line got the production rights when they licensed LOTR. So it was just too much work to rope in another studio and figure out splitting up costs and revenue on an unproven property. After LOTR was a hit, MGM was very open to working out a deal to get The Hobbit made.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ho...s)#Development


The third movie in the Harry Potter series is actually the lowest grossing, both domestic and worldwide. There was some thought it might be losing steam.
https://www.the-numbers.com/movies/f...e/Harry-Potter

I actually think Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban revived the series. After the first two dull adaptations, I suspect many fans opted out of skipping the third in theaters in favor of home video. However, the third movie was so good that when the fourth came out, people were eager enough to see it to see it theatrically again.

It was also a series where it didn't make sense to shoot them all at once, since the children characters were supposed to age between films. Shooting/releasing 1 a year would've been ideal, but they were averaging one every 1.5 years after the first two, which isn't that bad. I do recall WB was commissioning the next script before the previous movie was released, it's possible there was some pre-production going on before an official green-light on production as well.

Again, I think it was largely "don't commit money until you have to." I'm not sure how sets and props were handled between films. I'd guess some were stored, maybe others were rebuilt. After the final films, a lot of the sets and props became part of a long-term tour:
https://www.wbstudiotour.co.uk/our-history/

Jay G.

I found another article that stated Legendary financed 75% of the budgets for “Dune” and “Godzilla vs. Kong.” Legendary was asking for $250 million for WB to send Godzilla vs Kong to HBO Max for simultaneous theatrical and streaming release, due to Netflix offering a similar amount:
https://www.indiewire.com/2020/12/le...ng-1234606250/

Maybe Legendary got a similar amount for Dune, but that means that WB will be factoring in that upfront payment to Legendary when calculating whether a Dune sequel makes sense. the Dune budget is reportedly $165 million, so Legendary would've made a profit for any payment over $124 million.
https://screenrant.com/dune-movie-bu...49-comparison/

That said, I don't think Legendary could move forward with Dune part 2 without WB, since WB likely owns distribution rights to any sequel. Maybe WB could be paid off, but it'd be odd for any other studio/distributor to finance a sequel that WB doesn't think is worth funding.

I doubt WB would turn down good money just for being vindictive. Keep in mind Peter Jackson sued New Line over the profits for LOTR, yet New Line still worked with PJ to make The Hobbit. The actual dollars and cents are hashed out by the accountants and lawyers, and a studio isn't likely to stop a sequel they think will make money over a grudge about how much their production partner got paid on the last film.

I think I found what you're talking about for the WB Youtube copyright dispute, but based on the video I found, it seems like the Youtuber doesn't understand the difference between a Content ID match, which is automatic, and a copyright strike.

Troy Stiffler

Well that sucks. I'd rather pay $30 and own it on Disney Plus, like I did with Black Widow.

E Unit

If you bought it on Disney+, you don’t own it. You just have access to it until Disney+ makes it available to all Disney+ subscribers. You won’t have a copy of it on Vudu or Movies Anywhere. You’d have to buy it separately.

Dr. DVD

Yep. That's the guy. I really don't understand all the legalities, but I see other channels do trailer reactions all the time yet for some reason he didn't do one with the actual video playing because he was afraid it would get flagged.

Thinking about what you said, is it possible WB could look at what may be lackluster theatrical returns for the movie but also look at the overall viewership and possibly online reaction (don't know how you gauge that) to this and decide that since it helped move the needle on that service it may be worth a sequel for when people are back in theaters? I think you may have answered that earlier in the form of Austin Powers being an example. My plan for this is to probably watch it first on streaming, then make a trip to a large theater for a second one (like I did with GvK), then most likely watch a couple of more times streaming whenever I'm getting hig...er...more open minded!

Jay G.

OK, looking into this, last year he did a trailer reaction to a trailer that hadn't been released yet. He was likely given advanced access to it (he also mentions having seen the first 10 minutes of the film at an IMAX screening in another video), and so it was more of a "review embargo" type situation, where they didn't want a reacts video up before the actual trailer was up for everyone to watch first.

I really don't think it's unreasonable for WB to want the trailer to go up first before people start posting their reaction videos.

More recently, there's a trailer reaction/analysis here:

It includes video clips, but also a lot of stills as he breaks it down. This may be the Content ID match he was complaining about. But Content ID is automatic, although not instantaneous, and doesn't "flag" or remove the video, but means that since it contains copyrighted content by a given provider, and revenue will go to said provider. It's most often used for music, but can be used for TV and movie clips etc. It can even be used for other Youtube videos. Linus Tech Tips had to deal with this a few years ago when Youtube started automatically Content ID marking some videos others were making:

You can also challenge a Content ID match, with "fair use" being a reason one can give. At this point, the original copyright holder will actually be notified and will have to manually approve or reject the challenge. If they reject the challenge, you can then still say it's fair use, but Youtube warns you're opening yourself to an actual copyright infringement claim at this point.

So Quinn's Ideas could just let WB retain the Content ID and get all the ad revenue from those videos, or challenge them, or take them down. But from what he presented, WB isn't specifically targeting him, more likely they added the Dune trailer to Content ID to deal with simple reposts of the trailer with no additional commentary over it, but the Content ID system isn't sophisticated enough to make that judgement on its own.

E Unit

Dr. DVD

I think Dune may play well in the Japanese market. Looks like a trippy anime in style.

milo bloom

I'd probably even go so far as to say a lot of anime was inspired by Dune. The book came out in 1968 after all, that's a lot of time for other creative types (including George Lucas) to be inspired by it.

RichC2

Now and Then, Here and There always reminded me of a bit of Dune. That was some dark shit.

dex14

Reviews from Venice starting to come out:
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dune_2021/reviews

RichC2

The IGN review (a 7/10) is kind of what I was concerned about. Still can't wait to see this.

milo bloom

I'm seeing some comments on twitter from people seeing it that are mostly positive. But looking at the RT reviews, it seems there's some folks it didn't quite land right for. I'm adjusting my expectations down a bit, I think it will get a part 2, but the studio might cut the budget. I'd say something about stunt casting but they're already got Zendaya who will play a bigger part in the second half of the story so expect her (admittedly cute) face all over the promotional material.

OldBoy

85% for a franchise we've all acknowledged is obscure to general public isn't bad. glad i get to watch Day 1 at home. i'm sure this is theatrical absolute, like BR2049, but...

GoldenJCJ

Just taking a glance at some of those reviews, I’m actually a bit more optimistic about this.

I have faith that part 2 will be greenlighted soon. Hopefully WB and HBO going all-in on a Dune series will help those chances.

Josh-da-man

I have to say that I generally find Villeneuve a fucking slog to get through.

He's an amazing visual stylist, but it oftentimes seems like he's too in love with his own visuals, and everything just moves at a glacial pace.

BR2049 looked beautiful, but it took me three attempts to get through it.

And I still haven't been able to make it through The Arrival yet.

That's my main concern about his Dune, that it's going to be one hour of story and two hours of pretty images.

eXcentris

You're not the only one:

Dune Gets Lost in Space

"Villeneuve is no stranger to this kind of high imagining, or perhaps re-imagining. He applied his signature gloss onto the Blade Runner universe with 2017’s Blade Runner 2049, a gorgeous but frustratingly thin continuation of a narrative well established before him. With Dune, Villeneuve has the chance to right the wrongs of David Lynch’s 1984 misfire (a misfire according to some, anyway) and truly honor Herbert’s text. But Villeneuve can’t help but lacquer it all up into something hyper polished and hard to the touch. Even Arrival, his most successful big-budget film, groans under the tremendous onus of his construction. He’s an overloader, and only the keenest and most urgent of scripts can survive beneath that weight. Dune, unfortunately, is not one of those."

Artman

Even with a full theater for Shang Chi, this trailer got no audience reaction. Just thinking back to Avatar, and how Fox managed to prepare and sell that film (with blue skinned aliens) for general audiences...yet WB can't do that for this film? And I agree the director is doing them no favors with his very hard sell - there doesn't seem to be any real emotion on display... it's appearance (so far) seems to just be cold and calculating.

Throwing Copper

The only reason this will get a second part filmed is for prestige. That’s literally it.

this is gonna bomb big time. And not because of HBO Max either.

Dr. DVD

If we get a second part, I'll be happy. As for the rest of the books in the series, the smart thing to do would be to make them as an HBO series (which in all honesty, should have been done with this one).