Whatchu Dune

I've only ever read the first Dune book and I never watched the Children of Dune miniseries, so my knowledge of the weirdnesses that happens down the road in the Dune stories is limited to hearing random things here and there -- some sort of galactic space worm or something? Anyway the teaser for the third Dune movie Dune Messiah has just dropped today (or are they just calling it Dune Part Three now? Yawn) and I am excited! Especially with Robert Pattinson looking like such a freak in it. Freaky Robert Pattinson is always a good sign. This movie isn't out until December 18th though, so let's not let ourselves go too wild. Practice patience! And watch:

Thoughts?

Nothing will ever top Matt Keeslar as Feyd-Rautha in the 2000 miniseries though - the height of Cinema!

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) March 17, 2026 at 2:55 PM

Austin Butler's a Healthy Man

A gratuitous Men's Health photoshoot is the ultimate test of my willpower and so I I think I can finally say with full throated truth today that -- Austin Butler? Does absolutely nothing for me. I've been saying that for the past few years but these sweaty half-naked gray-sweatpanted photos really seal that deal -- he's never gonna do anything for me if these photos are stirring jackshit this morning.

I mean clearly his body is ripped. Shredded, even! I'd give anything to be in this kind of shape just once in my life. But it's not jealousy. It's more... bafflement. I just don't get the appeal. I saw someone on social media say something the other day about him emitting this crazy charisma in person and... okay? I find his entire persona off-putting if we're being honest, which is why I found Ari Aster casting him as a cult leader in Eddington very funny. Because what an empty vacuum to find one's self sucked into.

Which is to say I think he was used well by that movie; I also think Jeff Nichols used him well in The Bikeriders, where his macho man-of-few-words posturing concealed absolutely nothing -- a child. That's also why I don't think he was good in Elvis or Dune Part Two -- those characters needed to actually be more than a blank facade. (Then again with Baz who knows.) Feyd-Rautha though needs to transmit insanity and menace and Butler always felt like a kid playing dress-up. To me. (That said -- Sting wasn't much better. That role has never been cast right.) Anyway! This is all stuff I've said before and I don't mean to stop anyone from enjoying these photos if he stirs something in you. I'm seeing Darren Aronofsky's Caught Stealing next week so maybe... something will stir there. For now hit the jump for what we've got so far...

Double Oh Whatever

I'm in no way sharing that image of director Denis Villenueve with Jake Gyllenhaal on the set of their magnificent 2013 film Enemy to imply that Denis should make his former boyfriend Jake his James Bond now that he's been revealed to be directing the first film in the rebooted franchise for Amazon. Although I do find it strange that they hired a French-Canadian to direct this very British franchise I still think they'll get a British person to play the lead. I mean... they have to, right? Anyway if they're announcing a director I feel as if a leading man announcement can't be that far behind so we should probably know soon. And a lot of signs are indeed pointing toward Aaron Taylor-Johnson again. Whatever. I don't have much of a dog in this fight because I'm by no stretch of any person's imagination the world's biggest 007 fan. I enjoyed the Daniel Craig movies because Daniel Craig. I hadn't even seen another Bond movie until Craig was cast! Since then I have gone back and watched the Sean Connery ones and a couple scattered other random ones. They're fine! They're fun. Dr. No is probably a masterpiece but otherwise whatever. All of that said, to circle us around to the start -- Jake could make a great Bond villain. I feel as if the real future of Bond villains is billionaire nerds (and/or perhaps Russians) and that's in Jake's wheelhouse. Just sayin! I'd love for Denis & Jake to work together again. He's been so distracted by Timmy lately...

Did You Know I'm Utterly Insane

Luca! Have I not supported you? Have I not praised you far and wide? Well I don't know what I have done to make Luca Guadagnino unhappy and spiteful but I feel personally attacked twice in a row now with this American Psycho remake that he's planning on making -- first with the fact that he's doing it at all since Mary Harron's 2000 film with Christian Bale is literally perfect; one of my favorite movies, period. And now comes the word (thx Mac) that he's getting one of my least favorite It Boys of the moment Austin Butler to star in it? Luca, baby, why? I've found almost everything Butler has done in the past several years of making a name for himself to be phony and try-hard -- no matter the praise they received his Elvis and his turn in Dune Part Two were both flops as far as I'm concerned. Flops! Credit where credit's due -- he was fine playing a pretty boy poseur in The Bikeriders and I liked how Quentin Tarantino used him as a blowhard in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood...

... but I'd say it's his Dune work that landed him this gig and I have no idea what anyone sees in that performance. I find it laughable. I re-watched the movie last week and I still find it laughable. He has no presence in it -- he's the least scary villain since Jared Leto dyed his hair green. I will admit that there's something to be said here about Luca casting someone who reads as a total void to me as Patrick Bateman, the ultimate void. Lord knows I owe Mr. Guadagnino the benefit of the doubt at this point! His remake of Suspiria -- another film that never should have worked but managed to become one of my favorite horror films of all time -- proved my anti-remake mindset before that to be mostly foolish. But going into that I loved all oif the actors he'd hired, and that is just not going to be the case with this if this ends up happening. When I posted the remake's announcement in October I just figured this'd go onto the director's extensive never-happening heap of projects, but this casting news makes it seem like it is really happening. Granted Ellis' book and Harron's movie are very different, and having a gay man approach the material will probably give it a different hook. Also there is the real-world angle of our political reality to mine -- the poison of the 1980s New York Finance Bro misogyny mind-set which has had some, you know, consequences. I don't know. I don't know, dammit! Why can't Luca just be nice to me?

Good Morning, Gratuitous Josh Heuston

From one feast to another -- I hope everyone had a nice holiday! I'm still a little out of sorts from my illness (two weeks in, huzzah) but getting there, thanks for asking. Well enough to come into work and gather up dozens of photos of the latest hottest young thing, Dune Prophecy actor Josh Heuston anyway. Back in May was the first time I posted about (or heard of) Mr. Heuston -- even though you'd think he'd have caught my eye...

... when he played a character named "Zeus' Pretty Boy" in Thor: Love and Thunder). Hrm. Anyway May was when he got cast in a serial killer movie with Jai Courtney called Dangerous Animals that's been directed by The Loved Ones director Sean Byrne -- and yes these are all exciting developments to me personally still, maybe even moreso after having spent this morning staring at Josh's outrageous abdominal muscles. 

These models turned actors, yeesh. Will they ever quit murdering us??? (Also it's good to see also that that Jai movie is listed on IMDb as being in post-production, meaning I'm guessing we'll get to see it sometime in 2025. Gimme!) Anyway I haven't watched any of Dune: Prophecy yet but I have seen gifs of Josh on the show making the rounds and...

... my interest is up, up, up. I actually don't know why I haven't started the show yet, being a Dune fan -- I keep not being in the mood when I open the Max app and see Emily Watson in that great big black headdress staring back at me. Soon though. Soon. For Josh's part he's been doing his best...

... to steer me his direction, appearing on like a dozen magazine covers in the past few months in varying states of undress. Which is what brings us to this morning, this great big gratuitous post. It's a biggun! Took me all morning, it did. Hit the jump for a great big galumph of photos...

Caught Butlering

The thing about Austin Butler is... it's complicated. On the one hand I'm not at all convinced he's the huge talent he's being sold as these days. I didn't think he was all that great in Baz Luhrmann's Elvis. He was fine, he did what was asked of him; unfortunately Baz didn't feel like digging beneath the surface. But even more annoying to me is I'm really finding the reaction to his performance in Dune 2 completely overblown -- Feyd-Rautha is a role that any actor could have managed to make an impression with, especially with that make-up job, and I didn't feel Butler went particularly beyond that. Having now seen the movie twice I can confirm that initial impression -- he felt yet again to me like a lightweight playing dress-up. I did not sense legitimate menace or threat from him for a second of that performance.

But there is another hand! The other hand is that I did like him a lot as Tex Watson in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. And having seen Jeff Nichols' upcoming movie The Bikeriders a very very long time ago I thought he was a stand-out in that as well. It's a character that's all surface cool and sexy while being kind of a dumb nothing underneath that, and hey whaddya know he pulls that off. So... it's complicated. Like I said. 

Which leads me to today's complicated news -- Deadline is reporting that he's teaming up with Darren Aronofsky for a crime thriller called Caught Stealing, based on a 2004 book by Charlie Huston (thx Mac). It's about "a burned-out former baseball player... unwittingly plunged into a wild fight for survival in the downtown criminal underworld of ‘90s NYC." The book cover says it's got a "wrong man plot worthy of Hitchcock" and lord knows I love me one of those -- so if Darren Aronofsky wasn't himself coming off of his worst movie (by leaps and bounds) I might be excited about this right now! 

Alas the stench of The Whale still lingers, and a big part of me worries that nobody involved in the making of that piece of shit really got what a piece of shit it was given that its lead still won Best Actor for it. Aronofsky, who's given me some of my favorite movies of ever, really has to win me back with this next one. A lot's on the line! And casting Austin Butler isn't exactly the homerun I want it to be. But fingers crossed anyway. I hope the boys do deliver a proper Hitchcockian wrong-man movie and we can all skip together hand in hand into the future like one big happy family. Let's keep the dream alive. Let's do it for this guy:

I Do Not Recall...

... clocking Austin Butler in this costume during Dune: Part Two, do you? I feel like this outfit would have caught my eye. Granted there was a lot going on in every frame of that movie, but still. I would've noticed this outfit, I feel like. (The photo is taken from the accompanying coffee-table book The Art and Soul of Dune: Part Two, which you can buy at this link.)

How You Dune, Part Two

It's a good weekend for new movies as two excellent ones are dropping -- there's Dune: Part Two of course, which is the biggie. And I am sure most if not all of you will have an opinion on that one so please share once you've watched. I wrote some scattered off-the-cuff thoughts of my own over here a couple of days ago. And yes I'm throwing Austin a bone -- so to speak -- by using his image over Timmy's on this post, since I didn't really love what he does in Dune. Keep at it, Austin! One day you'll be a successful actor!) Please realize that I am making fun of myself in that previous statement, and set aside your scorn. I think most people disagree with me. or will. Per usual. But the movie's great overall and I very much want to see it again as soon as I can (preferably if I can snag IMAX 70mm tickets, but I'm afraid to even check how far in advance they are sold out for). 

The other excellent movie out this weekend is Julio Torres' art comedy Problemista starring Tilda Swinton and himself as a painter-slash-maniac and her new assistant -- I posted the trailer for this way back in July when it was going to come out back then, so watch it here if you haven't already. Or just go see the movie, which I totally adored when I saw it at NewFest last summer. You know TIlda's 2008 thriller Julia? This is kind of that but as a comedy. They remind me of each other for some weird reason. Maybe it's just that Tilda is fucking brilliant in them both, I don't know. Anyway that's that, I am done for the week. Have a fine weekend! Perfectly, adequately fine!

Here, Some Fast Dune 2 Thoughts

I posted a shorter version of this on Twitter (see it here) but what the hell, I'll elaborate a bit here on MNPP proper just in case Twitter sinks into the muck eventually (slash tomorrow) and since it doesn't seem I'm writing up a review of Dune 2 anywhere else. But I'm still going to keep this brief though because I weirdly don't have a ton to say? Even though I quite liked the movie. It's as promised even more epic than the first one -- Villenueve's sense of scale is basically unmatched right now, and there are shots here that will take your breath away. We're truly blessed that someone with his visual eye has had this amount of money tossed at him -- nobody has made world building feel quite so definitive. 

Because watching Dune 2 you really and truly feel as if an entire fucking world has been built right in front of you. An entire fucking universe. And it feels so much bigger and more consequential than anything Marvel has ever accomplished because there are actual ideas at work here -- ideas about religion and politics and not just "I gots bad Daddy issues, wahhh." Although yes there's some Daddy issues too, for good measure. 

Though its Mommy Issues are more exciting, given how Rebecca Ferguson basically walks away with the entire film. Everything Villenueve is saying about religion here is absolutely vicious (and, you know, spot on) and Ferguson (and to a less seen but no less vicious extent Charlotte Rampling) relishes the shit out of it -- like she did in Doctor Sleep she's so good at being so cold-hearted and weird and cruel! I bow down, really and truly. She is the queen we demand.

As for the much touted Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha he certainly looks very cool but I wasn't terribly impressed by him. Ferguson, Rampling, Stellan Skarsgård, Christopher Walken, hell even Dave Bautista drip with more menace -- I just didn't buy him as intimidating no matter how hard the make-up was working. He felt like a dopey kid playing dress-up. The big duel between him and Timothée is terrifically staged and choreographed, though. 

Speaking of, Timothée is good -- like he did in The King he surprises me every time he can muster a genuine sense of command; that the waif-like frailty we all know and love doesn't snap under the pressure of screaming orders at enormous crowds. That said I found it hysterically funny how big his hair got in the last act as Paul gets more powerful -- I guess Damian in Mean Girls was right. But it's a real Sigourney in Ghostbusters Gatekeeper type glow-up, volume-wise. He got a blow out. Power blow!

Okay those were more words than I anticipated rambling off. Shout out to the score too -- an absolute banger that I keep refreshing every website to see if the vinyl has been dropped yet. And needless to say the costumes astonish -- some truly Excalibur level cornball nonsense going on, but dialed up to ten thousand -- I love it. Anyway the movie is good! Better than the last one, and I liked the last one. It's annoying that it is another unfinished story -- especially with Villenueve bitching about the movies becoming television in interviews; dude, you're just giving us super-sized episodes of a Dune show here when it comes down to it. But I will keep tuning in.

Fill Our Oscar Isaac Shaped Hole, Oscar Isaac

Most days there are no new photoshoots for me to post and I'm scrounging up shit to get us through another infernal day. But some days a thousand land at once and I don't know what to do with myself, and today's turning out to be one of those days. I used to be able to set aside the photos for the next couple of days at least, but given the way the internet works now you'll all have seen everything a thousand times over by tomorrow, so I kinda feel I can't do that anymore. So anyway here (via)...

... is this new photoshoot of Oscar Isaac to go along with the new Jake Gyllenhaal photoshoot and the new Paul Mescal photoshoot (I only posted that on Tumblr) and the new Mark Ruffalo photoshoot and the new Andrew Scott photoshoot (I haven't even posted either of those at all yet). I can say that having already seen Dune 2 (which the reviews will start dropping for today -- not mine, mine will come next week when it's actually out) Oscar and this beard of his is legit missed in the new movie, so it's nice to have some of that today. Hit the jump for all the photos...

Off To Fuckboi

Okay well I'm going to go watch Dune 2 now, bye.

Like Sandworms Through the Hourglass

If you're excited about the imminent release of Denis Villenueve's Dune sequel, smartly titled Dune 2, then perhaps you might get it inside yourself a whisper sooner with a pre-order of cinematographer Greig Fraser's resplendant photography book Dune: Exposures, which collects his set photos into a grand hardcover edition that hits stands on Valentine's Day aka Wednesday of next week. Stick it in your loved one's chocolate box! (Ewww, that sentence was too far, Jason.) That's two whole weeks before the movie hits theaters so you can just press your face against the pictures of Timmy's windswept hair and toss some sand in your face and it'll be like you're right there! Pre-order your book right here. Me, I'm seeing Dune 2 in six days! So stay tuned for my opinion... as if you wouldn't. You don't do anything unless I say so, dammit! 

I Did It All For You, Austin Butler

I don't think I've made much of a secret of Austin Butler doing very little for me personally, so consider this post a sacrifice -- basically I am Jesus hanging on the cross right now posting these images of Austin in Esquire magazine for you (here is the interview, which you'd have to hold a gun to my head to make me read). I did it all for you! I guess I'm also sort of the nanny in The Omen? Those two have so much in common, I hope they got together in hell for scones or something, had a little nosh. Anyway Austin Butler. I thought he was okay in Elvis, but his whole "I was liuterally possessed by that dead singer and I literally couldn't stop talking like him" thing really turned me off that awards season. (I preferred Jacob Elordi's low-key performance in Priscilla, although obviously you're not going to get that performance in a Baz Luhrman movie - I get that. It's why I also prefer Sofia to Baz in general.) And I tried watching a couple episodes of Masters of Air but that show's really not for me (i.e. there weren't any scenes like George Clooney included in Catch-22 of Chris Abbott walking around naked). And Austin's performance on that show is very posturey too. 

That said I have seen Jeff Nichols' delayed movie The Bikeriders and his whole posing schtick worked really well for the movie, since that's the character he's playing, and it's the most I've liked him (well except for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood -- he was fun in his itty bitty role in that). It's perfect casting, if nothing else. That said I'm not terribly happy or excited that he got cast in the role of Feyd-Rautha in the Dune sequel -- I would love to be proven wrong but every image I'm seeing is making me feel right. We'll see. Anybody have any strong feelings on the young man either way? Hit the jump for the photos, aka my exorbitant sacrfiice...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Prisoners (2013)

Detective Loki: Alex Jones, unfortunately,

has the I.Q. of a ten-year-old.

Have truer words ever been spoken? Oh -- you say he was talking about the character played by Paul Dano in this movie and not the right-wing scumbag Alex Jones? Well I mean the right-wing scumbag. Anyway a happy 10 to this movie! I have been meaning to re-watch it for this anniversary, which I knew was coming as I have had it on my calendar for months, but which I still haven't gotten around to. I remember liking it, not loving it, when it came out, and it's such a damn downer -- not exactly the recipe to make me pop it in on a Tuesday night when I'm looking to relax. But I really do want to give it another shot and see if it's risen (or fallen) in my estimation. Any thoughts on this movie?

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Beau is Afraid (2023)

Beau: I accidentally drank mouthwash Friday night. 

You can't get stomach cancer that way? 

Therapist: Not from one time.

Beau: I drank a mouthful a couple of weeks ago too.

Therapist: I'm sure it's fine.

A happy 74th birthday to Stephen McKinley Henderson today! I had to look him up on Wikipedia to make sure that he hasn't been hiding in plain sight all along and it was me being a fool for not having taken notice of him before Lady Bird in 2017 -- it seems as if he started getting attention for doing a couple of August Wilson plays on Broadway over the past two decades. So it makes sense that I've only been familiar with him for a few years now, then. 

Anyway it's been a pleasure, over the past six years, every time he's popped up in anything. And nowhere more than his turn in Ari Aster's latest film (reviewed here) -- since that movie's such a ride I can't really talk about my favorite parts of his performance without spoiling it and I'm not at all convinced that all of you have seen it yet; just know that SMH is very very very funny in it, and I hope he keeps getting these chances like that to shine. Happy birthday to him!

Photograph Me Like One of Your Caladan Boys

What looks like a gorgeous book of set-photography from the set of Denis Villenueve's Dune movie, all taken by the photographer Chiabella James, has been released unto the world this very day -- you can buy it at this link. Seeing these two photos of Oscar Isaac lounging around in the (presumed) nude (since that's what his character was during this scene) were enough for me to clickity clack on that buy button, and perhaps they will be for you as well. I'm sure there's other gorgeousness to behold from that set, given the luxurious sets and costumes and locations that that sucker shot on. But Oscar's enough for me. 

ETA I stumbled on three more photos of Oscar in the book

and uhh they clearly must be shared.

Hit the jump for them all...

The Father, The Son, and the Holy Gyllenhaal

These here are obviously ancient photos of Jake Gyllenhaal (from 2001 to be precise) but they'll have to do because we done used up every photo ever taken of him at this point, and also this news itself is ancient news, getting an update. In 2016 I first told you that Jake was going to star in an HBO miniseries adaptation of Jo Nesbø's book The Son for his Prisoners and Enemy director Denis Villenueve. And then in 2020 I updated that news, saying ta-dah, twas on the calendar again. Well perhaps this will be lucky post number three and it will actually happen this time, because it's being reported that Villenueve is planning on shooting the damned thing finally, really for real they say, this very fall (thx Mac).

Of course with Villenueve's sequel to Dune coming out in November I have to admit I have no idea where he'd find the time -- especially now that there's word that Dune 2 is a middle-chapter and there will be a third movie. But perhaps ol' Denis really needs to wedge in a Dune-break for himself, and for that I wouldn't blame him. I guess we'll see. I don't know how you shoot an entire miniseries in like, two weeks -- one imagines it would take some time, and it seems like he will have a lot of responsibility selling Part 2 globally and such over this fall. Whatever. I got to post these pictures of Jake. We all win. All that said it also feels like Jake might be too old for the lead role in this book, which is about "a promising wrestler" who tries to unravel a mystery surrounding his father's suicide. Maybe Jake will play the father now? Cue Daddy commentary.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Freysa: Our lives mean nothing next to a storm that's coming.

Dying for the right cause. It's the most human thing we can do.

Sorry, I don't know why I'm thinking about this movie today...

And this is it now pic.twitter.com/cANnq8MX8v

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) June 7, 2023

Here is the Dune: Part Two Trailer

I don't really feel like giffing it -- it's really just a bunch of Timmy standing around in the desert and then sliding down some sand, with a couple of brief glimpses of Austin Butler playing the Sting role. But I'm excited! Don't think I am not excited because I am. I very much dug the first one. It's out on November 3rd. Thoughts?

Portrait of an Artist on Fire

 

About three weeks back I got distracted (as I'm wont to do) while talking about the anniversary of Harmony Korine's film Spring Breakers, specifically by its poster -- it was designed by one of my absolute favorite working movie poster artists, Akiko Stehrnberger, and therein I yammered a bit about her work and how friggin' excellent I find it to be. Anyway one of my holy grails has been the hardcover book about her work that was released in 2020 and immediately went out of print -- there isn't a week that rolls by where I don't search eBay for it. But search no more! Because a second-edition is getting issued this fall and you can pre-order it right here. Indeed if you order it right now it's on sale for 40 bucks instead of 50! This second-edition has a new cover (seen above) and includes some of Akiko's newer work, some of which you can see in the Instagram post below. Score!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Akiko Stehrenberger (@doyrivative)