WHAT THE ...?:

Winds of Dune Author Brian Herbert on Flipping the Myth of Jihad: Dune author Frank Herbert's son discusses picking up his father's threads in Winds of Dune, out this month, and his hopes for Peter Berg's film adaptation of the saga. (Clayton Neuman, August 17, 2009, SciFi Scanner)

Q: The Winds of Dune is part of your Heroes of Dune series of prequels. What was the inspiration to go back?

A: When [co-author] Kevin [J. Anderson] and I started writing books together, he wanted to do Dune 7, which was the book my dad had not written before he passed away. I wanted to do The Butlerian Jihad and go back 10,000 years. So we settled on a third option -- we're doing the core characters of Dune when they're all older. Winds of Dune focuses on Jessica, and it's about her reaction to this jihad that's going on -- billions of people have been killed in her son's name. My dad was a reporter and he liked to look at the myths under which we lived, and he would flip the myth of a charismatic leader: Isn't it great we have this wonderful leader, but what if it's the other way? Hitler and bin Laden were charismatic too. [...]

Q: Do you think it's an appropriate time for a remake since the plot so closely parallels what's going on in the Middle East right now?

A: Absolutely. Look at all the predictive qualities that my dad had. The interesting thing about Frank Herbert is that he was living so far in the future, and he could just see how things came out.

Am I missing something, or is the implication of the question--in an arts blog, no less--that the film ought not be made because it might be insightful?

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 17, 2009 9:02 AM