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Dune TV film for the SciFi Channel US – Set Pictures Published

By John Freeman on March 10, 2000

German SF news site sf-film.de features photographs from the shoot of the new $20 million six hour Dune TV film for the SciFi Channel US which started shooting in Prague on 22nd November 1999.

The mini-series stars William Hurt as Leto Atreides; Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini as Emperor Shaddam IV and Ian McNeice as the evil Baron Harkonnen. Barbara Kodetova plays Cahni on the side of Alec Newman as the charismatic Paul Atreides, the film’s lead character. The German actor Uwe Ochsenknecht plays Stilgar.

The script for this latest screen version of Dune was written by John Harrison, who also directs. The executive producers are Richard P. Rubinstein and Mitchell Galin. Three-time Oscar winner Vittorio Storaro (Apolycapse Now) is director of photography. Theodor Pistek (who won an Oscar for his costumes in Amadeus) is the costume creator. There’s also special effects supervisor Ernest Farino and production designer Miljen Kreka Kljakovic.

The digital effects will be created by three studios, including Area 51 (Space: Above & Beyond, Buffy) and Netter Digital (Babylon 5).

Dune is produced by New Amsterdam Entertainment, Inc., the Sci-Fi Channel and KirchMedia in conjunction with Tandem Communications.

The US airdate is scheduled for the last quarter of 2000, and the film will be shown in Germany in Spring 2001. No info yet on a UK screen date — keep watching this page for news!

• Read the story here on sf-film.de

Special thanks to Darryl Curtis and Frank Garcia for help with this item

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.