Denis Villeneuve may have been snubbed at the Oscars this year, but people love his work on Dune: Part One and Dune: Part Two, which together adapt Frank Herbert's seminal sci-fi book Dune. Next up, Villeneuve will adapt Herbert's sequel book Dune Messiah.
"I think it’ll be a great idea to do something completely different," Villeneuve told Deadline about the conclusion to his Dune trilogy. "The story takes place like 12 years after where we left the characters at the end of Part Two. Their journey, their story is different this time, and that’s why I always say that while it’s the same world it’s a new film with new circumstances.”
In the first two films, we saw Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) embed himself with the desert-dwelling Fremen people of Arrakis and eventually become the new emperor of the known universe, a good gig if you can get it. According to Villeneuve, the new movie “will finish the Paul Atreides arc.” Also returning will be Paul's Fremen partner Chani (Zendaya) and his fiancé Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), the daughter of the emperor he supplanted. We'll also see more of Paul's sister Alia (Anya Taylor-Joy), who turned up very briefly in Dune: Part Two. “They have to return," Villeneuve said. "They are with the main cast when it happens. And more worms. What can I say?”
If you've read Dune Messiah, you know it's overall more dour than the first Dune book, which I wouldn't describe as a laugh riot to begin with. Villeneuve ominously teased that there are choppy waters ahead for Paul and Chani in particular. "[U]nfortunately the politics of the world will bring [Paul] back to his origins,” he said, and “he will have to do something awful and betray the love of his life."
Dune: Part Three will round out the tragedy of Paul Atreides
While the first Dune book took two movies to adapt, Villeneuve will adapt Dune Messiah in one. That book is indeed shorter and more intimate than the first novel, so it makes sense. "Chani's heart is broken, and it's the beginning of the Holy War and that's where we left, so in a way, I'd say it's quite similar," Villeneuve told Collider. "I was expecting to do something else before, but frankly, that's the inspiration that came to my mind as I took a break this summer and was going back and finishing the story. I was really moved by the way Part Two was received by cinephiles around the world, and I felt an appetite and a desire to see more and a responsibility to finish that story."
While I wouldn't want Villeneuve to push himself too hard, I'm happy that there won't be an interminably long wait for the next Dune movie. So if he felt the need to end his self-imposed Dune blackout early, I'm not going to complain. “I thought that after Part Two that I will take a break, that I will go back in the woods and stay in the woods for a while to recover. But the woods weren’t really suiting me, and I would go back behind the camera faster than I think. But that’s all I can say,” he explained.
The upshot of all this is that we could be seeing Dune: Part Three (I'll just assume that's the title until we're told otherwise) earlier than expected. According to the Budapest Reporter, filming will begin in Hungary in September of this year and last into January of 2026. It will hopefully be ready for its release date of December 16, 2026.
Dune composer Hans Zimmer asked to rewrite Saudi Arabia's national anthem
In the meantime, Dune is up for a bunch of Academy Awards, including Best Picture. As mentioned, Denis Villeneuve is not up for Best Director, which is a crime, nor is Hans Zimmer up for writing the score for Dune: Part Two, another capitol offense.
The score was disqualified because it used too much music from Dune: Part One, a decision with which Villeneuve vehemently disagrees. “I am absolutely against the decision of the Academy to exclude Hans, frankly, because I feel like his score is one of the best scores of the year,” Villeneuve said at a screening, according to SlashFilm. “I don’t use the word genius often, but Hans is one.”
Zimmer is doing alright, though. According to Sauri Arabian newspaper Al Arabiya, Zimmer met with Turki Alalshikh, the head of the country’s General Entertainment Authority, to talk about several projects. Those include a concert, the score for an upcoming Saudi movie about the 636 A.D. Battle of Yarmuk, an original composition called “Arabia,” and — and this one's the kicker — a revamped version of Saudi Arabia's national anthem. The current anthem, “The Chant of the Saudi Nation,” was written by Egyptian composer Abd al-Rahman al-Khatib in 1947.
So even if the Oscars aren't overly interested in the Dune movies, they've clearly made an impact.
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