Quentin Tarantino Has No Time for Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Dune’ or Any Other Remakes: ‘It’s One After Another’
Quentin Tarantino has no desire to watch a remake of a preexisting film or show, even if it’s made by a fellow auteur like Denis Villeneuve.
Tarantino said during “The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast” that he still has not watched either (Villeneuve) “Dune” movie, and probably never will.
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“I saw [David Lynch’s] ‘Dune’ a couple of times. I don’t need to see that story again,” Tarantino said. “I don’t need to see spice worms. I don’t need to see a movie that says the word ‘spice’ so dramatically.”
And it’s not just a “Dune” IP problem, but rather remakes as a whole. Tarantino also cited his lack of enthusiasm for TV series “Ripley” and “Shōgun.” Though both are critically acclaimed shows, Tarantino says he has again already “seen the story” from their previous iterations.
“It’s one after another of this remake and that remake,” Tarantino said. “People ask, ‘Have you seen “Dune”? Have you seen “Ripley”? Have you seen “Shōgun”?’ And I’m like, ‘No, no, no, no.'”
He continued, “There’s six or seven Ripley books. If you do one again, why are you doing the same one that they’ve done twice already? I’ve seen that story twice before, and I didn’t really like it in either version, so I’m not really interested in seeing it a third time. If you did another story, that would be interesting enough to give it a shot anyway.”
Tarantino added, “I saw ‘Shōgun’ in the ‘80s. I watched all 13 hours. I’m good. I don’t need to see that story again, I don’t care how they do it. I don’t care if they take me and put me in ancient Japan in a time machine. I don’t care, I’ve seen the story.”
Instead, Tarantino praised the original storytelling of “Joker: Folie à Deux.” The Academy Award winner said also during this podcast that Todd Phillips’ box-office bomb starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga was reminiscent of his own “Natural Born Killers” script. (Oliver Stone directed Tarantino’s script, and previously told IndieWire that its backlash in 1994 was similar to some of the early blowback toward 2019’s “Joker.”)
“The Joker directed the movie,” Tarantino said of Phillips’ feature. “The entire concept, even him spending the studio’s money — he’s spending it like the Joker would spend it, all right? And then his big surprise gift — haha! — the jack in the box, when he offers you his hand for a handshake, and you get a buzzer with 10,000 volts shooting you — is the comic book geeks. He’s saying fuck you to all of them. He’s saying fuck you to the movie audience. He’s saying fuck you to Hollywood. He’s saying fuck you to anybody who owns any stock at DC and Warner Brothers […] And Todd Phillips is the Joker. Un film de Joker, all right, is what it is. He is the Joker.”
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