With all that’s going on in the world, there are traces of some fascinating things, and one that certainly attracted my attention was the premier of Dune II in London. It’s not just because it’s a great science fiction story from 1965 put exceptionally well into a movie format, which people have been trying to do for many years. They have tried it before with David Lynch. A lot of people didn’t like that earlier movie. I did like it and thought it was an exciting interpretation of Frank Herbert’s original story. The first movie came out a few years ago and did quite well, being recognized as a cinematic masterpiece, where even critics agreed with the fans that Dune was something special. The buzz for Dune II of course has been looming in the background because it’s essentially Part II of the original first book. Dune is a massive story that takes place across six original books by Herbert. Then, after his death, his sons completed the story with two additional books, which span across the entire universe and involve thousands of years, and the whole thing isn’t just about science fiction but about the problems with power and how living things have difficulty managing it. It’s very sophisticated and it looks like the producers of Dune understand the content of the story very well, and finally digital set design has caught up to the ambitions of the film and something really special ended up on screen. But that’s not what dazzled me as a fan of the books and Herbert himself. Zandaya showed up in a stunning robot outfit that reminded me of many things I had been thinking about lately. And she made a bold proclamation that certainly did set the world on fire in more ways than one.
The outfit itself was ultra sexy with cutouts that exposed the sexual areas of a female body in ways that reminded me of a Heavy Metal magazine cover from when I was growing up that put high science fiction concepts into sex appeal to young adolescent boys. But I had never seen a young woman on such a widespread scale as Zandaya do something like that before. It wasn’t slutty like something Madonna would do, or even Lady Gaga. It was bold, innovative, and classy yet very ambitious. I follow the launch of every Starship from SpaceX very closely, and another launch is coming up, the third for actual flights into space. The first thing I thought of was that her outfit matched the ambitions of these civilian space flights, and I instantly thought of the beautiful statues from the great novel Fountainhead as the perfect embodiment of this current time, when corporate communism and global fascism from that sector of the economy was spreading terror all over the world, A.I. was making people weary with worry about being controlled by machines. Space travel was displacing all the philosophies and religions of the world with the uncomfortable reality of life on other planets. Politically, the world was in a populist revolt. And there was Zandaya boldly managing it all with a very knowledgeable understanding of it all by showing up to that movie premiere dressed in that outfit, which is what I would have expected as a young 12-year-old looking into the future of 2024 and considering what life should have been like. She certainly understands the director of the film Dune and what he’s trying to do. And she clearly understands the author of the book, Frank Herbert. He certainly was not a socialist like H.G. Wells and some of those early European writers. He was a small government kind of guy who appreciated the founding fathers, and that went into the extensive work of his Dune project, with all the books being between 600 and 800 pages each. It was a very ambitious work, so there was a lot going on.
And there were a few times over the last few years when I thought nothing like this would ever happen again, especially a young woman like Zandaya openly expressing her femininity and sex appeal without being raunchy about it. Not after the Covid lockdowns destroyed the movie industry, and a firm commitment to socialism pretty much provided the final nail in the coffin. I never thought I would see something like that again or for the first time. I had all the Heavy Metal magazines for several years, and I loved the ambitious art. I also loved the animated movie when I was a kid. This Dune premier was all those magazine covers coming to life. I think Zandaya is a pretty good kid. She is younger than my daughters. I thought she was perfect in the latest Spiderman movies, and she showed up at the end of the first Dune movie. She’s a singer and a high fashion model who grew up as a Disney talent. Despite all her early success, I think she has a pretty good head on her shoulders, which came out in interviews with Tom Holland while promoting the Spiderman films. Unlike other Hollywood types, she is a good entertainment representative for this upcoming generation. At least so far. She didn’t have to show up to that premier with that outfit. But that she did shows she understands far more about the nature of our current reality than most people do, and she was bold about it.
What a gift she provided to the director of Dune, Denis Villeneuve. He should be ecstatic with excitement that one of his stars from the new film so openly embraced the overall vision of the Herbert books, which is not to spoil it for anybody, but that Zandaya’s look explores what Frank thought was the background of the entire universe. But that fashion model of Zandaya knew how to look and express the totality of Frank Herbert’s work with just a few simple gazes, and I felt the entire human race had just leveled up a bit. Because of the Dune movies, more people will understand the point of Dune, which is a very anti-tyrannical effort that questions the nature of all life and how power flows down to every form of it. With all the bad news that has been going on in the world, I saw this premiere for this movie as a bold rebellion against those vile forces. In much the way that I was surprised by the Godzilla Minus One movie. With all the bits of tyranny that have emerged, these little bits of hope are emerging from the human race. And sometimes, someone like Zandaya captures the effort with high art and fashion in ways that seem iniquitous, even unintentional. But you can’t go into public dressed like that, yet face everything down with such boldness without the intent being purposeful and intelligent, without scrutiny being applied. And with the production of Dune, the launch of the Starships, and the political landscape lashing out at fascism the way it is, many elements came together in human expression that refused to be a victim to it all, which was very encouraging and a sign of a lot of good things to come. I would say there is hope for the human race yet!
Rich Hoffman
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