That was out there and I was not aware, yet the Khaleej Times (at https://www.khaleejtimes.com/entertainment/shot-in-uae-coming-to-cinemas-next-week-sci-fi-epic-dune-2-to-welcome-fans-at-premiere) gave me that the second Dune movie was shot on 20 locations all on the UAE. This is nice. You seldom get to see news of that nature (apart from LOTR all over New Zealand) and as such I was surprised. Now, lets be clear Dune cannot be filmed in too many locations. So Saudi Arabia and the UAE (and a few places around the Sahara) are mostly it. So it was nice to see that the UAE catered to this magnificent film. As the article states, the 20 locations were in the UAE, the Liwa desert in Abu Dhabi to be more precise. And next week Sunday, the red-carpet event is set to take place on February 18 at Vox Cinemas, The Galleria, Al Maryah Island. I reckon that might be a UAE first, but that is merely an educated guess. A team of 300 local, 250 international crew and 500 extras were used during the 27-day shoot. As such it is a movie to see as soon as possible. I will be watching the first movie on BlueRay again two days before the launch in Sydney. I won’t be joining Timothée Chalamet or Zendaya in the UAE but I don’t think they will be heartbroken on that part of the event.
On the other hand, I have had to deal with my alcoholic neighbour who had been kicking and screaming at the door and then just being an ass. The landlord will do nothing and after 4 hours I pretty much had enough. This got my wheels turning and I think I have come up with a solution to get rid of around 20% of the planet. I had the idea for a side setting in one of my stories, but now I could solve the housing issue in Sydney. I have been waiting for over 10 years now and in that setting I could solve it another way.
OK, I admit it is not nice, but stress and anxiety can create its own solutions, even if they are out of whack to say the least.
Those who read the books of Frank Herbert know that the emperor wanted to take care of one duke. That duke was too popular and that creates envy. He used the Harkonen to deal with his problem and I saw another option to make one of my stories a little more challenging (Engonos). Here the problem is that it is not entirely original. Take any James Bond setting. With 1-2 exemptions they were all about world domination and reducing the population (by a lot). Here I to a small degree grasp at ‘On her majesties secret service’ combine that with the unproven accusations on Covid and you get an entirely new setting. Is it totally original? Not really, my examples get you part of the roadmap. Polar Star (an Arkady Renko story) gave me parts, but not parts of that story. It merely awakened me to a larger setting that could set the stage. There are two deployment options here, but one raises questions because I have no expertise in that direction and ‘On her majesties secret service’ finalised the road trip. I’ll grant you it is no Dune, but when you consider that we have no Spice Melange and as such we have no monster like Rabban, I had to make due and I think I found a handle on the idea.
So what sets of the charter in a person? What makes that person go berserk? I am not sure, but one drunk shouldn’t get you that far. It is too much psychoses. Like the girl who met this boy she really likes and hoping to meet him again. She starts to kill her family members with poison, hoping he will attend another funeral. Even if we do not know what made him come to the first funeral in the first place. So was the girl creative, insane or shortsighted? I tend to go with all three, but that is me.
So in all we need to see how cogs fit together. Frank Herbert did so for half a dozen books and the first three showed him to be a master. There is a reason that it is a magnificent book, just like the Lord of the Rings (1954) turned out to be. I have absolutely no hope to be ever anywhere near that good, but no matter what you think JK Rowling started on page one and she is now a multibillionaire. I have no plans to be that good (or that famous) and this is not about the money. It is about the creativity. Creativity for good or for evil remains creativity. Harnessing that creativity is what I am after and I do hope it is for good. Dune is one of the shining examples of my life ever since I read it the first time around roughly 45 years ago, around the same time I got the Lord of the Rings. So in other news we will get Dune 2 in less then 3 weeks, Dune 3? No idea, but that is supposed to be Dune Messiah. I wonder where that will be filmed. Time will tell, it usually does.
Try to enjoy your weekend, mine really sucks this time around.
Lawrence van Rijn - Law Lord to be 