The Cinematic Schematic returns after a short hiatus to wrangle the Shai-Hulud sandworms in our review of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part 1.

The podcast can’t discuss the feud between rival houses Atrieus and Harkonnen without the proper guests. Joining the show today are No Film School‘s Jo Light, the GoodTrash Genrecast‘s Dalton Stuart and The Cinematropolis‘s own Daniel Bokemper.

Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel has historically been tough to crack. Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky famously failed to get his version off the ground in the 1970s before the acclaimed Twin Peaks writer/director David Lynch released a critically panned adaptation in 1984. Eventually, The Sci-Fi Channel would take another stab at the material with a three-part Dune mini-series that would receive enough acclaim to get a follow-up series, Children of Dune. After the rights for another big-screen adaptation completed a shuffle and landed at Legendary Entertainment, Dennis Villeneuve was announced as the director in 2017.

Though you wouldn’t know it from the marketing, Villeneuve decided to break the novel into two parts, with the second half just being greenlit this week. After being delayed by a year due to the pandemic, Dune: Part 1 has finally made its way to the big screen and HBO Max.

With so many films like Star Wars and James Cameron’s Avatar incorporating some of the more prominent ideas from the novel into their stories, is there still room for the original Dune to bring a fresh take on the sci-fi genre to the table?

The discussion starts with the group’s spoiler-free thoughts before we dive into a spoiler-filled discussion covering the film’s more notable themes. The spoiler section includes a deep dive into Bokemper’s recent essay on the film’s unique portrayal of the ecology of Dune, the film’s portrayal of western imperialism, white savior narratives and the tragedy of prophecies.

Tune into our full review discussion!

Special Guests

Dalton Stuart

Co-host of GoodTrash Genrecast and GoodTrash Media co-founder

Follow GoodTrash Media on Twitter @Good_Trash

Jo Light

Managing Editor at No Film School

Follow Jo on Twitter @jo_lightly

Daniel Bokemper

Contributor at The Cinematropolis

Read Daniel’s essay related to Dune’s Ecological Plea

Follow Daniel on Twitter @daniel_bokemper

According to IMDB,