Update: Dune videos

TL;DR – four Dune videos coming: Faces of Dune, Fighters of Dune, Philosophy of Dune, The Real Dune Part Two.

We’ve almost finished Faces of Dune, a ~25-minute-long video. It compares how the characters of Dune are portrayed in the movies and miniseries, versus the book. It focuses on the characters’ physical appearance, including costumes, sets etc. It’s cool to see all the different adaptations of Dune side-by-side! (And shoutout to Patron Jack for suggesting the title “Faces of Dune”!)

The Faces of Dune video is 90% done. So is the Fighters of Dune video. But before we finish those vids, I’m doing another close study of the Dune book – this’ll help to double-check some details, and it’s also needed to finish the Real Dune Part Two video, and the Philosophy of Dune video.

The Real Dune Part Two video will be a lot like the Real Dune Part One video – comparing the Dune movie to the book, in-depth. But Dune Part Two diverges from the book more than the first movie did... So there are lots of interesting changes to talk about.

The Philosophy of Dune video is going well. I understand Frank Herbert’s views better after making the Author of Dune video. The Philosophy video is unusual for ASX, because it touches on real-world events and politics, which are currently, erm, complicated. But despite being written in the 1960s, the themes of Dune are shockingly relevant to current issues like political fanaticism and AI. Dune draws from an incredible breadth of intellectual influences… It makes me want to learn more about philosophy, psychology, and Buddhism. This could easily become a very lengthy research project. But I don’t want to delay this video any longer. (We announced the Philosophy video two years ago 😬). So I’m trying to keep the video short and focussed. It’s mostly based on the first few Dune books, identifying the series’ big ideas about life, the universe and everything.

Once the Dune book study is done, we’ll be able to finish these four Dune videos. It’s the culmination of a lot of work – I’m proud of the Dune videos we’ve completed, and I think these next ones will be even better.

Meanwhile, Denis Villeneuve is making a third Dune movie, based on the book Dune Messiah. So someday, we’ll make a Real Dune Part Three video. Dune Messiah is much shorter than the first Dune book, so the Real Dune Part Three video will be simpler and quicker to make.

To illustrate these new Dune videos, we’re commissioning artist Joel Chaim Holtzman. He’s completed illustrations of Emperor Shaddam, Prince Farad’n, and Alia Atreides. (They’re still in-progress – please don’t repost these images!)

Meanwhile, the Destination: Void video is on the back burner, though it’s also near-complete. We’ve also got various ASOIAF and HOT D videos on the back burner, for when we’re done with Dune.

The new Game of Thrones spinoff show, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, has been rescheduled to 2026. When it comes out, we’ll cover it with weekly videos, as usual.

Meanwhile, my incorrigible demi-grunkle Alt Schwift X did a livestream with Glidus about horses. Schwift also participated in Glidus’ cooking video(?!). No doubt there are more bewildering Schwift-Glidus projects to come.

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Cheers

ASX

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