It’s through her gaze we peer into Arrakis and the oppression inflicted upon the Fremen people by the dastardly House Harkonnen. By contrast with the film, she’s our first blue-eyed character onscreen. While Chani surely has a bigger role than Zendaya’s brief walk-on in Villeneuve’s first volume of Dune, the literary character remained a passive presence throughout the saga on the page. Rather than having an interstellar princess narrate these events-a princess who we soon learn in the book is the daughter of the current Padishah Emperor of the Imperium-we are instead introduced to Arrakis through the eyes of Chani ( Zendaya in the film), a character who was frankly always underwritten by Herbert. Which is what makes one of Villeneuve’s first changes his biggest. Over the course of the novel, and even more so in its sequel, the author methodically deconstructs the concepts of messiahs and great men, but this is still nonetheless a story told from the perspective of the wealthy and powerful. There is a deliberate irony to Herbert’s approach. However, it also creates the impression that this is a tale of historical significance within its universe in the most old-fashioned understanding of history: events which occur to “great men” like Paul Atreides, who from the first page of the novel is introduced as Paul Muad’Dib, a messianic figure. It’s an interesting literary device where the book actively hints at plot developments (“spoilers” in the modern parlance) a few pages, or maybe a few dozen, before they occur.
However, nearly every chapter in the book begins with events being foreshadowed by an excerpt from historical texts written somewhere down the line by Princess Irulan.
Of course Herbert always intended to make the oppression of the Fremen population on the desert planet Arrakis pivotal in his saga, with this indigenous culture accepting Paul Atreides ( Timothée Chalamet in the film) as one of their own. Suddenly, this story is reframed from being one of feudal warfare between the universe’s ruling class to a tale about relentless oppression. One of the most profound changes that’s already made headlines ( including here) is the shifting of focus during the film’s prologue.
Here are some of the most striking differences between the Dune movie and Dune book. Choices are made, and changes implemented. Despite being nearly three hours in length, and with the second half of the book left for a second picture, there is still too much of Herbert’s world-building to fit into a single movie’s running time. To be sure, Villeneuve made arguably the most faithful recreation of Herbert’s vision of the desert planet Arrakis we’ve ever seen in a movie, but he also updated it in slight ways for a new century and a new cinematic experience. I want people who love the book to feel like we put a camera in their minds.” Yet even so, books are books, and films are films, and changes must be made when transitioning between the two mediums. He’s said as much when he confided to Den of Geek that “the bible is the book…. This article contains major Dune spoilers, for both the page and screen.ĭenis Villeneuve first daydreamed of making the definitive adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune when he was 14-years-old.