thettyofGeoffreyS.Goodfellow@sri-unix.UUCP (10/25/83)
ptions.
''They just gave me a very rough description,'' the special effects
modeler said when asked how limited he was in developing the
creature. He said he first made a three-foot model and then developed
the full-scale navigator that visits the throne room.
Rambaldi also built 25 worms in different dimensions, the largest
about 25 yards long. The worms - whose crinkly skin is black and pink
- are used by the inhabitants of the fictional Arrakis much as
Bedouins use camels.
Elsewhere, mounds of sand shaped into ghostly dunes stand on a sound
stage ready for the special effects shooting of the arid planet
Arrakis.
Principal photography started March 30 and is almost complete. But
special effects and other work will continue into January. Plans
originally called for ''Dune'' to be released Christmas 1984, but the
movie might be released before then.
Director David Lynch, who did the midnight movie, ''Eraserhead,''
and the critical hit, ''The Elephant Man,'' says he'd never heard of
''Dune'' before being asked to direct the film. But to hundreds of
thousands of science fiction fans, ''Dune,'' published in 1965, is the
start of one of the genre's most popular series.
''Dune'' author Frank Herbert now has published four volumes.
Lynch said Herbert, who has visited the set twice and is expected to
return, has been a cheerful supporter of the movie version. ''Other
than moral support - real support - he's read all the scripts and he's
very happy,'' the director said.
Actor Paul Smith, who played Bluto in Robert Altman's ''Popeye'' has
the part of Rabban. ''There's never been a cast like this in a
science fiction movie,'' he said.
Others in the movie include Swedish actor Max Von Sydow as Dr.
Kynes, Sting from the rock group, Police, as Feyd and Italian actress
Silvana Mangano as the Rev. Mother Ramallo.
Miss Mangano, returning to films after an absence of 12 years, is
the wife of ''Dune'' executive producer Dino de Laurentiis and mother
of the movie's 28-year-old producer, Raffaella de Laurentiis.
Few expenses were spared on the elaborate sets that fill all eight
sound stages and backlots at the Mexican government-owned Churubusco.
Except for some special effects work, all the production has been
done in Mexico.
''Dune'' has been in the forefront of a wave of foreign movie
productions that have come to Mexico to take advantage of costs that
plummeted through three devaluations of the peso last year. The movies
filming here range from potboilers to John Huston's production of
''Under The Volcano,'' currently filming outside of Mexico City.
End Adv for Tues AMs
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