The cast of Dune explains how the film is relevant today

The cast of Dune talks seriously about the film’s ecological and societal implications…and also Oscar Isaac makes fun of Josh Brolin’s huge head.

So, it finally happened. After months of anticipation, Warner Bros. got its act together and released a trailer for Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi classic Dune:

Following this, principal members of the cast and crew got together on Twitter with Stephen Colbert to chew the fat about all things Arrakis, spice and sandworm, and ruminate on how Dune’s story reflects our current moment.

Dune takes place on a desert planet where people have to fight to survive. Given our current battle with climate change, Villeneuve sees some prescience there. “Dune is a movie about the capacity of adaptation, because there’s a lot of changes that are coming,” he said. “That’s why I think Dune is more relevant than ever.”

The film was shot in the heart of the Jordanian desert, something the Canadian-French filmmaker insisted upon when he took up the project. “My argument is that they didn’t shoot Jaws in a swimming pool. The title is Dune, and we needed to be in the real environment, so we would be inspired by the infinity.”

Timothée Chalamet, who plays protagonist Paul Atreides, agrees with his director. “When you’re shooting in the desert in Jordan, the spirituality of the location, I’ll ruin it with my words, so I won’t even try, but you’re really in it.”

"I think I did two scenes on a green screen. I think it’s literally two scenes I did on a green screen. Besides that, everything else was practical."

Rebecca Ferguson, who plays Paul’s mother Lady Jessica, ran with this. “It was quite an intense shoot,” she said. “It taught me an incredible amount about myself. And the desert, it’s so big! It’s basically Mother Nature golfing you and going, ‘You mean nothing.’ It takes away the ego.”

But, as Sharon Duncan-Brewster (Dr. Liet-Kynes) suggested, it was all worth it. “It’s gonna be a mammoth moment when people have the chance to experience something that is not only just exquisite — a feast for the eyes — but is also something that we should take home with us and into our hearts. This film can inspire change.”

Of course, it wasn’t all dystopian desert chat. There was still time for Star Wars veteran Oscar Isaac (Duke Leto) to poke fun at co-star Josh Brolin (Gurney Halleck). Asked how the scale of the set compared with The Rise of Skywalker, also filmed in Jordan, Isaac got honest. “I’ll just say that no set piece, no X-Wing, no Millennium Falcon could compare to the sheer scale of Josh Brolin’s head,” he said. “It was massive, both literally and figuratively. It really made me feel like I was in an alien planet.”

NEW YORK, NY – JUNE 18: Actor Josh Brolin attends the New York screening of “Sicario: Day Of The Soldado” on June 18, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

You be the judge.

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