Following is a comprehensive list of changes based on the two officially released versions of DUNE – the Theatrical Edition and the Extended Edition.
ADDITIONS
* Most scenes and footage unique to the Extended Edition have been used.
* The following Deleted Scenes from the DVD extras have been included:
- The Fremen Reverend Mother’s original opening to the film
- An extension of Fremen housekeeper Mapes testing Jessica
- Thufir and Leto discussing the Fremen’s prophecy about Paul
- An extension of Paul’s talk with Jessica after his waking dream
- The aftermath of Paul defeating Jamis in the knife fight
- The Fremen priest telling Paul he may be the fulfilment of their prophecy
- A shot of Jessica in labour with Alia
- A closeup shot of Fremen warriors shouting “long live the fighters!”
- Thufir Howat’s redemption and death
- Paul taking Princess Irulan as his wife.
* The film has been divided into four “Books”, each with a title frame preceded by a quote from various Dune novels. The original novel by Frank Herbert was divided into 3 books. This fanedit includes these and adds a 4th book to accommodate the structure of the film. The titles are: Book I: The Great Houses; Book II: Dune; Book III: Muad’dib; Book IV: The Prophet.
* Two new filmbooks have been created about the history of the universe, and are seen being read by Paul Atreides during the film. They have been built with material from the Extended Edition’s prologue and are designed to match the look and feel of the existing filmbook that appears early in the movie.
ALTERATIONS
* Some scenes from both the Theatrical and Extended Editions have been moved around and relocated to improve the narrative, including changes to accommodate the fanedit’s new 4-part structure.
* A new opening features Princess Irulan’s narration, a Fremen ceremony and customised Dune Titles. The Fremen ceremony audio now has the intended reverb added, and the chanted answers to the Reverend Mother are now the sound of a whole crowd responding instead of a single placemarker voice.
* A new, simpler ending has been created, modelled on an earlier draft script, where Paul does not magically make rain fall on Arrakis. The idea of rain on Arrakis is a narrative and ecological absurdity in the world that Frank Herbert created.
* Princess Irulan is the narrator. The Alternative Edition Redux uses most elements of her narration from the Theatrical Edition, plus selected audio edits from her Deleted Scene.
* The male narrator including the painted prologue from the Extended Edition has been deleted, but parts of it have been reworked into two new filmbooks about the history of the universe, read by Paul Atreides during the film.
* The overuse and/or inappropriate choice of music in some scenes from the Extended Edition has been addressed.
* The attack on House Atreides by the Harkonnen and the Emperor’s forces is confusingly shot and edited in places. This has now been re-edited and some shots flipped around, to a give better sense of direction and a better sense of the ebb and flow of battle.
* Because the Fremen Reverend Mother’s prophecy now opens the film, it’s appearance in the official versions of the Dune – when House Atreides lands on Arrakis – now seems like an exact repeat of an earlier shot. So the Trip To Arrakis sequence has now been remixed so that only desert landscapes are used for the visuals, while the prophecy is still heard on the soundtrack.
* The Deleted Scene where Thufir speaks to Leto about the Fremen prophecy now opens with an atmospheric long shot of Arakeen and the castle keep. This shot has been changed to make it set at dusk and the 2nd moon rising over the shield wall has been added.
* An new closeup of Princess Irulan – and some altered footage – has been included in the scene where Paul surveys the prisoners after his defeat of the Emperor.
DELETIONS
* Approximately 60% of internal dialogue has been removed from the audio track and, where necessary, the video has been recut. I believe it was a colossal mistake by Lynch to adapt this narrative device so literally from Frank Herbert’s novel. In the translation from book to film many viewers find a good deal of it irritating and unnecessary. It often spoonfeeds obvious information to the audience and can pull the viewer out of the scene rather than drawing them in. Essential elements like The Litany Against Fear have been left intact.
* Deleted the incongruous St Francis Prayer section from Princess Irulan’s final narration, in order to move the story away from a simplistic and forced happy ending: “Where there was war, Muad’dib would bring peace; where there was hatred Muad’dib would bring love.” Dune is not Disney, despite producer Dino De Laurentiis’ apparent attempts to make it so.
* Reduced Paul’s awkward forced laughter in two shots to a more believable smile.
* Deleted some cheesy closeups of the actors when riding the sandworms.
* Deleted Chani’s cheesy line when Paul wakes from a dream: “You were calling my name. It frightened me.”
* Deleted Beast Rabban’s diabolical laughter when the Baron hands him charge of Arrakis. Also deleted the shot of him kicking over the dwarf. These villains are already cartoonish enough.
* Deleted or fixed some bad rear projection FX shots during Paul and Jessica’s pursuit by the sandworm. This action scene as also been tightened to increase the sense of danger.
* The climax of Paul and Feyd’s knife fight has been tightened to make it more tense and more plausible.
TECHNICAL FIXES
* Completed the blue spice eyes FX on human characters where this effect was missing in the Extended Edition and in some Deleted Scenes.
* Also added blue spice eyes FX to the 3rd stage Guild navigators in two scenes, in line with the description of the navigators in Frank Herbert’s books.
* Colour-corrected all footage unique to the Extended Edition to remove a pronounced green tint.
* Fixed the filmbook read by Paul in the opening scene on Caladan because many images are stretched out in the wrong aspect ratio. These shots have now been corrected and the images rebuilt.
* Fixed the infamous editing mistakes, bad audio joins and censorship in scenes that were used from the Extended Edition.
* Digitally cleaned and restored the lower resolution Deleted Scenes to improve the image quality. Also cleaned up audio where possible.
* The Extended Edition DVD print is slightly crisper and generally in better shape than the Theatrical DVD print. So where Theatrical Edition footage was needed or preferred, footage from the French Bluray was used (scaled down to Standard Definition) due to the cleaner print.
* The audio track from the Theatrical Edition is used wherever possible due to its superior quality and mix.
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