EXCLUSIVE: Denis Villeneuve says his “break” is over and he will be “back behind the camera sooner than I think” to film the third part of his “deep” immersion into the world of Frank Herbert’s Dune.
“I’m in the writing zone now,” the director says, referring to Dune: Messiah, though he was careful not to call it Dune: Part Three.
“For me, Dune: Part 1 and Part 2 are one and the same,” Villeneuve insists. It is a film made in two parts. “It’s over, it’s done.”
The French-Canadian director says he could have stopped at Dune: Part Two, “but yeah, like Herbert did with Dune: Messiah, I think it would be a great idea to do something completely different. The story takes place almost 12 years after we left the characters at the end of the film.” The second, their journey, their story is different this time, and that’s why I always say that even though it’s the same world, it’s a new movie with new circumstances.
He continues that this new film “will conclude the arc of Paul Atreides.”
This would also end Villeneuve’s association with the Dune universe, although Herbert would write four more Dune sequels after Dune: Messiah.
Villeneuve says the key players returning to Dune: Messiah are Timothée Chalamet as Atreides; Zendaya as Fremen tribal warrior Chaney, whom he tries to mentor; Florence Pugh and Anya Taylor-Joy.
“They have to come back. They’re with the main cast when it happens. And more worms. What can I say?” he shrugs.
I push him further and refer him to a conversation we had last year when he identified late 2025 or early 2026 as possible start dates for Dune: Messiah. “2026,” he mutters, then looks puzzled.
Denis Villeneuve in conversation with Joe Wright about “Dune: Part Two” in London Getty Images
“These movies take a lot of time to make, so I better not say out loud when I can shoot,” he says, looking forward to seeing his longtime publicist from ID PR, who has strategically placed herself in his position. Eye line. “Unfortunately, I’m supposed to shut up,” he says, laughing.
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“Let’s say I thought that after Part 2 I would take a break, and that I would go back to the jungle and stay in the jungle for a while to recover,” he begins. “But the jungle wasn’t really for me, and I would be back behind the camera sooner than I thought. But that’s all I can say “
Well, Dune: Part 2 is one of those rare examples of a cinematic masterpiece masquerading as a blockbuster. For some reason, though, they’re very different: the success of Dune: Part II reminds me of the artistic and box office achievements of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather Part II.
The intimacy of its epic setting reminds me of David Lean’s novel Lawrence of Arabia. Both won Academy Awards for Best Picture.
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Villeneuve, who is in the middle of an awards season campaign for a Warner Bros. film, welcomes the film. Pictures and Legendary Pictures, with such comparisons. “When you think about it, [Dune: Part Two] It’s not really about technology. So it’s not really science fiction. It’s a more human journey. It’s more of an adventure film, but it’s also, again, a human journey. “So the technology is in the background,” he says.
The central point of Dune is the Fremen’s desire to turn their desolate homeland into fertile land, “and this is more relevant now than when Herbert wrote his stories,” says Villeneuve convincingly.
What also interested him were the cultures that Herbert explored “and the trauma between those cultures and the political game between those cultures and the journey of this teenage boy, Paul Atreides, who becomes a man coming into contact with a new culture with Chaney, this young man.” woman.”
He notes that their relationship “is at the heart of the film.”
“It’s as if the entire film revolves around Paul and Shani’s relationship,” he adds.
But, essentially, he notes of the novel, “I like the idea that, through the eyes of Paul Atreides, we will discover a culture, and begin to fall in love with that culture…And what moved me about the book at first was the idea that a young man could establish his identity in another culture.” And he finds himself beautiful.
Villeneuve clearly “absolutely loves” the characters that populate the world of Dune, especially, he says, seeing Paul “fall in love” with Chaney. “But unfortunately the politics of the world will take him back to his origins,” and this is the tragedy of Paul Atreides because in the end, “he will have to do something terrible and betray the love of his life.
(LR) Timothée Chalamet and Austin Butler in Warner Bros Pictures’ “Dune: Part Two”
“So it’s a very intimate story that opens up the scope of the entire film,” he says.
Villeneuve says it was refreshing to create the worlds the film travels through.
“World building is fun,” he says of working with the great production designer Patrice Vermette, with whom he first collaborated on Prisoners 12 years ago.
It’s about trying to create the depths of those tribes who live in those worlds “visually without words” “so you can feel the roots of their way of thinking, their behaviors and their cultural customs.”
Any film, whether big or small, is “difficult to make,” says Villeneuve, but blockbusters can take several years of “long journeys, long hours.”
“It’s important that I have people that I can work with for the next three years or whatever. I’m not there to make new friends, but creativity involves vulnerability. It involves trust. And if I want to direct, my heart has to be completely open, and I have to I fully connect with the people I am around.
His first rule is: “I can’t work with someone who is abrasive or toxic. When I’m acting, of course – talent first – I’m looking for the best actors but also for someone who I’ll be sure I’ll be able to connect with.
Villeneuve’s version of a chemistry reading is the “coffee test.”
Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya in Warner Bros Pictures’ “Dune: Part Two.”
He explains: “There is always a moment before all projects where you have tea or coffee with the actor or actress. In that moment, there are a lot of things you can feel. You know how a person listens, what kind of human being you are dealing with, and it is a test of coffee. The moment is very important.
“It’s more important than any audition. Again, I’m not making friends, but I’m looking for someone I can work with,” he adds.
It’s the same with department heads and main staff. “You have to make sure it’s not going to be a narcissistic person, but someone who’s there for the love of cinema, and you can share creativity together.”
Noting the thousands of names in Dune: Part Two, I suggest it’s like being like General Patten, having to organize all these people and figure out when the war is going to end, so to speak.
“You’re in trouble when there are more people at the end of the credits than living in your hometown,” he says with a smile. “Those movies are our monsters.”
He does not know the exact number of people who worked on the film, but he estimates it to be between three or four thousand or more. “That’s why you have to have good department heads to divide responsibilities,” he says.
Before we met in Soho for our conversation, Villeneuve was in conversation with director Joe Wright (Atonement, Darkest Hour) to discuss the making of Dune: Part II, and Villeneuve spoke poignantly about cinema being about “the collective act of creativity” that can only be made Via computer.
When I bring up the topic during our private conversation, I declare that collaboration “is one of the beauties of cinema.”
It’s the idea of it being a “collective art form” and working with other human beings “to create poetry that makes sense to me.”
Between his “break” and preparations for Dune: Messiah, Villeneuve is tracking several other potential future projects that include the long-awaited Cleopatra film based on Stacey Schiff’s 2010 best-selling biography of the Egyptian queen.
Christy Wilson Kearns (1917) is writing the screenplay.
“It’s a very difficult project, a wonderful project, but it’s very ambitious, and the writing has to be perfect.” “It is a very long-term project,” he asserts. It’s a monster that needs to be broken.
Warner Bros. is bringing back Pictures and Legendary Pictures release Dune: Part 2 in select Los Angeles theaters for its big screen return October 20-25. Great opportunity to see it again in the theater.
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The film was originally released in February, and Villeneuve has recently been making the rounds across Europe and the US reminding awards season voters that Dune: Part Two is a serious contender in a race that has many great pictures, but so far no clear contender. .
Everything is up for grabs.
.
