See the first official image of Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides in Dune

Director Denis Villeneuve’s Dune movie is set to hit theaters in December…hopefully, if the coronavirus doesn’t push it back. Vanity Fair has just released the first official image from that movie, featuring Timothée Chalamet as lead character Paul Atreides.

Dune, based on the classic novel by Frank Herbert, follows Paul and his family, the noble House Atreides as they move from their home planet on Caladan to the desert world of Arrakis, aka Dune. Dune is the only planet that produces the highly-sought-after substance known as Spice. People who ingest spice on the reg live longer lives, and some even gain an ability to see into the future.

Paul and his family must learn to live with the Fremen, the native inhabitants of Dune who have found ways to live and even thrive in the harshest of conditions. However, the evil House Harkonen — which used to rule the planet — are none too happy about being replaced, and are determined to make life difficult for House Atreides. This movie will cover the first half of the first book. From there, the sky’s the limit.

As for the photo, it’s definitely on Caladan, because nowhere on Dune we will see a body of water just out in the open like that; water is precious beyond gold on Arrakis. This must be from very early in the movie. Paul is wearing all black instead of the uniform with his house crest on it. In the books and in David Lynch’s 1984 film, Paul Atreides proudly wore his uniform and house crest of green and black, at least before a certain twist in the middle of the story.

“The immediately appealing thing about Paul was the fact that in a story of such detail and scale and world-building, the protagonist is on an anti-hero’s-journey of sorts,” Chalamet told Vanity Fair. “He thinks he’s going to be sort of a young general studying his father and his leadership of a fighting force before he comes of age, hopefully a decade later, or something like that.”

Warner Bros. has also released an official logo for the movie:

I totally dig the lettering. It’s bare-bones simple but also very futuristic. Dune takes place in the year 10191, so it’d better be.

Villeneuve talked about how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected post-production. “Dune was made by people from all over the world,” he said. “Many of these people are like family to me, and they’re very much in my thoughts. I’m so proud to showcase their hard work. I look forward to a time when we can all get together again as Dune was made to be seen on the big screen.”

Sounds like he’s ready to get back to work so Dune can be ready for December 20. Here’s hoping.

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