Director Denis Villeneuve is adapting Frank Herbert’s sci-fi classic Dune for the big screen. The first movie will cover the first half of the first book (you’d best believe Warner Bros. wants to turn this into a long-running series) and is set to hit movie screens in December of 2020. The story is set thousands of years in the future after humanity has traveled the universe, inhabited planets and established royal houses paying homage to the Galactic Padishah Empire.
The desert planet of Arrakis, aka Dune, is the most precious of all the inhabitable planets, since it’s the only place giant sandworms can grow and create a highly useful (and highly addictive) substance known as Spice. Whoever controls Arrakis controls the flow of Spice throughout the Empire. The first half of Dune deals with House Atreides taking over control of Arrakis from House Harkonnen, a vindictive royal house led by the vile Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. Playing the role of the Baron in the movie is Stellan Skarsgård (Chernobyl), who recently spoke with Collider about what it was like being directed by Villeneuve.
“I’ve always wanted to work with him partly because he’s such a wonderful man, but also because he’s a brilliant director,” Skarsgård said. “It’s fun when you get one of those big sci-fi movies and you know it’s going to be directed by a true filmmaker. It’s not going to be directed by the studio. It seemed like they were giving him pretty free hands. And you have to, because his personal stamp on the film is paramount for the success of it.”
As a fan of Villeneuve’s work and of Dune, I get pretty excited when I saw the director was tackling this project. In 1984, David Lynch directed a version of Dune, but it didn’t go over well with critics or fans. Later, it was revealed that Universal Pictures meddled too much and didn’t allow Lynch to go with his vision for the movie.
Skarsgård said that Villeneuve’s Dune will be different. “What he’s really good at is creating this strange atmosphere with his imagery and this cinematic poetry that is his trademark and that will add so much richness to the pretty simple story.”
As much as I didn’t care for the 1984 Dune film, I can at least admit that it was strange and memorable in its own way. Still, with visionary movies like Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 under his belt, hopefully Villeneuve can give it the adaptation it deserves.
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Skarsgård isn’t the only cast member hyping the movie. Speaking with Variety about his efforts to fight climate change on behalf of Greenpeace, Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men) mused about how Dune might presage things in our own future. “We should bring this to wider audiences in those so-called tentpole movies,” he said. “I just did Dune. I play a character named Stilgar, who is the leader of the Fremen tribe. They’re the only tribe able to survive for years out in the desert by recycling their own liquids.”
"It’s a scientific masterpiece. We went to Jordan to shoot in the desert, and I thought, “Sh–. This is not far from being real.” Hopefully that’s a powerful issue this movie can raise."
The planet Arrakis is climate controlled and goes through several terraforming events throughout the books, but starts out arid and nigh-unlivable. If Hollywood wants to send a message about our climate crisis, Dune could indeed be a solid vehicle.
Dune hits theaters on December 18, 2020.
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