What do we know about Dune Prophecy, the spin-off TV series airing on Max? More than you might think!

What Do We Know About Dune Prophecy? More than you may think. With the second part of Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic science fiction novel a critical and box office success, it is going to be several years before we see the next feature film in the series, Dune Messiah. Luckily, production on the small-screen prequel /spin-off was concurrent with Dune: Part Two which means before the end of the year we are going to return to the fictional realms of Arrakis, Geidi Prime, and more via Max.

While not much in the way of footage has made its way online, there have been quite a few reveals about Dune Prophecy, so let’s jump in and discuss.

Denis Villeneuve is not directing any episodes

The original plan was for Villeneuve to helm the series in addition to his big screen directorial duties. The series, originally announced as Dune: The Sisterhood, went into production in November 22 with Chernobyl director Johan Renck behind the camera. Why wouldn’t the visionary director of the feature films be making the series? It all came down to timing. With Legendary originally acquiring the rights to the Herbert novels in 2016 and announcing Villeneuve as director in 2017, he was deep into the project by the 2019 announcement of Dune: The Sisterhood. While Jon Spaihts was showrunner for the series, he departed in 2019 to focus on Dune: Part Two, something Villeneuve also opted to make his primary project. That shifted the series to Dana Calvo as showrunner alongside executive producers including novelist Kevin J. Anderson, co-writer of dozens of Dune prequels and sequels alongside Brian and Kim Herbert, the children of Frank Herbert.

What is it about?

Taking things way back, Dune Prophecy is set ten thousand years before Paul Atreides joined the Fremen to lead an uprising on Arrakis to take down House Harkonen. Using the deep mythology created by Frank Herbert and the expanded novels including Sisterhood of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, the series centers on sisters Valya and Tula Harkkonen, the founders of the mysterious all-female order called the Bene Gesserit. For the layperson, these are the witch-like advisors seen in the films played by Rebecca Ferguson, Charlotte Rampling, and Florence Pugh. In Dune Prophecy, the siblings, played by Emily Watson as Valya and Olivia Williams as Tula, combat forces that threaten the future of humankind. That leads to the next question.

What is the threat against humankind?

This is something we do not know for certain, but excuse me while I nerd out a little here. In Dune Part Two, Princess Irulan notes the time as being the year 10191 and Prophecy is set ten thousand years earlier. Fans of the Dune novels know that the lack of any computers in the world of Dune is due to an event that happened known as the Butlerian Jihad. This was a massive conflict throughout the known universe between an A.I. consciousness that enslaved humanity and the people who fought back. When humans defeated the machines, computers were outlawed, leaving the world a different place, hence the use of complex machines instead of computers. The Butlerian Jihad occurred more than 10000 years before Dune which means Prophecy will find the houses of Atreides, Harkonnen, and Corrino in a very different place than we have seen before. While I would imagine if the films keep making money for Warner Bros, we may see a Butlerian Jihad series of its own while Prophecy will focus on the early conflicts between the human families as they begin their exploration of the galaxy.

Who is starring in the series?

Prophecy has a solid cast, led by the aforementioned Watson and Williams. Shirley Henderson, originally set to play Tula Harkonnen, left the production early along with director Johan Renck. Indira Varma, who was going to play Empress Natalya, was replaced by Jodhi May. The cast also includes the great Mark Strong as Emperor Javicco Corrino with Josh Heuston as his illegitimate son, Constantine. Sarah Sofie Boussnina plays Princess Ynez a woman struggling with her pressures as heir to the throne. There are some familiar names with Vikings star Travis Fimmel playing a soldier named Desmond Hart while Chris Mason portrays Keiran Atreides, a swordsman with an unexpected connection to the royal family. Shalom Brune Franklin will play Mikaela, a Fremen servant to the royal family. There are more names sure to come out as we get closer to release, but you can already see the seeds planted similar to how House of the Dragon connects to Game of Thrones.

Who made the series?

While Villeneuve and Spaihts departed to make Dune Part Two, Prophecy underwent some shifts behind the scenes. Dana Calvo was replaced by Diane Ademu John  as showrunner, who in turn was replaced by Alison Schapker. Renck left early in 2023 and was replaced as director by Anna Foerster, best known for helming the Netflix action movie Lou as well as episodes of Outlander, Carnival Row, and Westworld. Sigur Ros frontman Jonsi was set as composer but was replaced by Volker Bertelmann in October 2023. We also know that production kept going during the SAG AFTRA strike thanks to the cast and crew in Budapest being aligned with the UK based union Equity. Production began in late 2022 and wrapped December 2023. We also know that the series did not use StageCraft technology revolutionized by Disney and Lucasfilm series The Mandalorian and Ahsoka, instead opting for physical production values and practical sets.

When will we see it?

In the recently released teaser trailer, it was revealed that the six-episode series is due for a Fall 2024 on Max. The trailer included some tantalizing imagery, including a cool fight/ sparring session using the shield technology we saw Paul using with Gurney (Josh Brolin) in Dune: Part One.

What do you expect to see in the upcoming Dune series? Let us know in the comments and click the like and subscribe to follow all of our latest original videos.

Borderlands featurette looks at the “dysfunctional family” of characters at the heart of Eli Roth’s video game adaptation

Filming wrapped on director Eli Roth‘s adaptation of the Borderlands video game series from Gearbox and 2K way back in June of 2021. A year and a half later, Deadpool director Tim Miller had to step in to handle the project’s two weeks of reshoots because Roth had the chance to finally – after sixteen years – make a feature based on the Thanksgiving faux trailer he put together for the Quentin Tarantino / Robert Rodriguez collaboration Grindhouse. The Borderlands reshoots have been completed, Thanksgiving has come and gone, and Lionsgate is now gearing up to finally release Borderlands into the world on August 9th… and with that date right around the corner, a featurette has arrived online to give us a look at the “dysfunctional family” of characters at the heart of the story. You can watch it in the embed above.

The Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin wrote the initial screenplay for Borderlands, but removed his name from the project after the script was rewritten by Roth, Juel Taylor, Tony Rettenmaier, Joe Crombie, Chris Bremner, and Sam Levinson. Zak Olkewicz wrote scenes for Miller during the reshoots. Elements from drafts Aaron Berg and Oren Uziel wrote before Mazin have reportedly made their way into the film as well. So there were a lot of cooks in the kitchen on this one.

The film stars Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Edgar Ramirez, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, Haley Bennett, Olivier Richters, Gina Gershon, Cheyenne Jackson, Charles Babalola, Benjamin Byron Davis, Steven Boyer, Bobby Lee, Ryann Redmond, Penn Jillette, and Janina Gavankar, who plays “a new, key character” called Commander Knoxx, someone who has not been in the video games. Jack Black provides the voice of the robot Claptrap. Here’s the synopsis: Lilith (Blanchett), an infamous outlaw with a mysterious past, reluctantly returns to her home planet of Pandora to find the missing daughter of the universe’s most powerful S.O.B., Atlas (Ramirez). Lilith forms an alliance with an unexpected team – Roland (Hart), a former elite mercenary, now desperate for redemption; Tiny Tina (Greenblatt), a feral pre-teen demolitionist; Krieg (Munteanu), Tina’s musclebound, rhetorically challenged protector; Tannis (Curtis), the scientist with a tenuous grip on sanity; and Claptrap (Black), a persistently wiseass robot. These unlikely heroes must battle alien monsters and dangerous bandits to find and protect the missing girl, who may hold the key to unimaginable power. The fate of the universe could be in their hands – but they’ll be fighting for something more: each other. 

Borderlands is produced by Arad Productions’ Avi Arad and Ari Arad, along with PICTURESTART’s Erik Feig. Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford serves as executive producer with Strauss Zelnick of Take-Two Interactive. James Myers and Aaron Edmonds are overseeing the project for Lionsgate, while Emmy Yu does the same for Arad Productions and Lucy Kitada and Royce Reeves-Darby are overseeing for PICTURESTART.

I know nothing about the video games, but the Borderlands movie looks like fun to me. I’ll definitely be checking it out at some point.

Are you looking forward to Borderlands? Take a look at the featurette, then let us know by leaving a comment below.

TV spots for The Crow reboot feature some new footage from the film, which stars Bill Skarsgard as an undead avenger

Lionsgate will be bringing a new version of The Crow to theatres on August 23rd – and while we had previously been referring to this project as a remake, Lionsgate recently let it be known that this is not to be called a remake, but rather a new adaptation of the source material, the comic book series created by James O’Barr. Now, with the release dates just one month away, TV spots for the film have started showing up… and since these TV spots feature some new footage, we have dropped them into the video embedded above.

Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman) directed this version of The Crow, working from a screenplay by Oscar nominee Zach Baylin (King Richard). The film is produced by Victor Hadida, Molly Hassell, John Jencks, and Edward R. Pressman. Dan Farah serves as executive producer. Here’s the synopsis: Soulmates Eric (Bill Skarsgard) and Shelly (FKA twigs) are brutally murdered when the demons of her dark past catch up with them. Given the chance to save his true love by sacrificing himself, Eric sets out to seek merciless revenge on their killers, traversing the worlds of the living and the dead to put the wrong things right.

As the synopsis mentions, Bill Skarsgard plays the lead character and is joined in the cast of The Crow by singer FKA twigs, who takes on the role of Shelly, the love of Eric’s life. Danny Huston (Yellowstone) plays the lead villain. David Bowles (Brothers), Isabella Wei (1899), Laura Birn (A Walk Among the Tombstones), Sami Bouajila (The Bouncer), and Jordan Bolger (Peaky Blinders) are also in the cast.

Based on the comic book series created by James O’Barr, the first version of The Crow was released in 1994. Following the production of three sequels (each about a different resurrected character), a redux was first announced in late 2008… then it had to make a long journey through development hell. Several screenwriters came and went, scripts were written and scrapped, studios went bankrupt, and directors like Stephen Norrington, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, Corin Hardy, and Francisco Javier Gutiérrez were all involved along the way. Actors up for the lead role during the long development period included Bradley Cooper, Mark Wahlberg, Tom Hiddleston, Luke Evans, Jason Momoa, and Jack Huston.

Are you looking forward to seeing the new version of The Crow? Check out the TV spots, then let us know by leaving a comment below.

Paul Walter Hauser on the challenge of playing Chris Farley in the upcoming biopic: “I’ve been practicing to play him my entire life.”

Paul Walter Hauser is one of the busiest actors in Hollywood, and one of his many (and I mean many) upcoming projects is a Chris Farley biopic. Stepping into the shoes of the iconic comedian is no small task, but Hauser told Variety that he’s been “practicing to play Chris Farley my entire life.“

Hauser has played a handful of real-life people throughout his career, including Shawn Eckhardt in I, Tonya, Richard Jewell in Richard Jewell, and Larry Hall in Black Bird, but Farley is by far the most well-known, which makes Hauser’s task more difficult.

“Everybody’s going to judge the crap out of the movie and have very passionate, hard-line opinions. I’m not worried about playing Chris because I know I’m going to approach it with a lot of love and effort,” Hauser said. “At the end of the day, all you can do is work hard and try your best to love the character and the project as much as possible. To me, that doesn’t seem like much of a hurdle with Chris. I adore him. I want to honor him. I want people to leave the theater, having laughed and cried together.“

Josh Gad will direct the Chris Farley biopic, which is based on the New York Times best-selling biography The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts by Tom Farley Jr. and Tanner Colby. The script is by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber.

Now, about those many projects Hauser is involved in. The actor can currently be heard voicing Embarrassment in Pixar’s Inside Out 2 and will next be seen starring alongside Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, and Hong Chau in The Instigators, a heist thriller directed by Doug Liman. The film will hit theaters on August 2nd before streaming on Apple TV+ on August 9th. He’s also set to appear in The Naked Gun reboot with Liam Neeson and will star in Press Your Luck, which depicts the ’84 cheating scandal orchestrated by Michael Larson. He will also star alongside Mark Wahlberg in Peter Farrelly’s action comedy Balls Up and will appear in Marvel’s long-awaited Fantastic Four movie.

Emerald Fennell, who wrote and directed Saltburn, will adapt Emily Brontë’s classic novel Wuthering Heights as her next movie.

Emerald Fennell, who wrote and directed Saltburn, had set her next project, an adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic novel Wuthering Heights.

The novel, which was first published in 1847, deals with “Heathcliff, an orphan-turned-foster-son who falls in love with the daughter of the family who owns the estate on which he now lives, Wuthering Heights. After running away, Heathcliff rises up through the ranks of the gentry and exacts revenge on the families — the Earnshaws and the Lintons — who kept him from his true love.” Although some early reviews didn’t quite know what to make of the novel, it has since been accepted as one of the greatest English-language novels of all time.

Fennell tweeted a logo for the Wuthering Heights movie with the caption, “Be with me always. Take any form. Drive me mad.“

Alec Baldwin’s manslaughter trial over the fatal Rust shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins has been dismissed.

The manslaughter trial against Alec Baldwin over the fatal shooting of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins has been dismissed. Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer threw out the case after learning how police and prosecutors treated a handful of bullets, which they failed to turn over to the defence.

“The state has repeatedly made representations to the defense and to the court that they were compliant with all their discovery obligations,” Judge Sommer said. “Despite their repeated representations, they have continued to fail to disclose critical evidence to the defendant. The state is highly culpable for its failure to provide discovery to the defendant. Dismissal with prejudice is warranted.” Under the principle of double jeopardy, Judge Sommer ruled that Baldwin could not be retried.

The dismissal came as a surprise as gasps were said to be heard in the courtroom, and Baldwin was congratulated by his family and supporters. The defence had argued that prosecutors deliberately concealed a batch of bullets turned over to investigators in March. Erlinda Johnson, one of the special prosecutors on the case, actually resigned during the hearing.

The bullets were turned over by retired Arizona police officer Troy Teske, who is said to be a close friend of Thell Reed, the father of Rust armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed. Crime scene technician Marissa Poppell accepted the bullets, but they were not inventoried with the Rust case. Some of the rounds Teske handed over were Starline brass casings with nickel primers which matched the ones that killed Hutchins on the set of the movie, providing a possible explanation of where the live rounds had come from.

In an unusual move, special prosecutor Kari Morrissey called herself to the witness stand, saying that she did not believe the bullets had any evidentiary value as they did not resemble the ones from the Rust set. Judge Sommer put on latex gloves to open and examine the evidence envelope containing the bullets, where it appeared there was a similarity with the live rounds from Rust.

Baldwin’s defence attorney, Alex Spiro, also cross-examined Morrissey, asking if her failure to turn over evidence was due to her dislike of the actor. “This is absolutely untrue,” Morrissey said. “I actually really appreciate Mr. Baldwin’s movies… I really appreciate his politics.”

After the dismissal, Morrissey told reporters outside the court that while she respected the court’s decision, she disagreed with Judge Sommer’s dismissal. “I respect the court’s decision. But there is absolutely no evidence that any of that ammunition was related to the incident with Ms. Hutchins,” Morrissey said. “I’m disappointed because I believe that I believe that the importance of the evidence was misconstrued by the defense attorneys. We did everything humanly possible to bring justice to Halyna and to her family and we’re proud of the work that we did.“