In a few short weeks we'll be gaping in awe at movie theater screens when Dune: Part Two drops and subsequently blows our minds. Co-written and directed by Denis Villeneuve (Arrival, Bladerunner 2049), Dune is about as ambitious as movies get. Dune: Part One only adapted the first half of Frank Herbert's seminal 1965 science fiction novel, but it still ran over two and a half hours, which is a long movie by any standard. And there was quite a lot left on the cutting room floor; Villeneuve and his team filmed more than four hours of footage for Dune: Part One.
To date, those deleted scenes have never been released to the public. You can't watch them online, you can't watch them on the physical release. Will we ever get to hear Josh Brolin's character Gurney Halleck play the baliset?
According to Villeneuve, the answer is a hard no. “I’m a strong believer that when it’s not in the movie, it’s dead. I kill darlings, and it’s painful for me," Villeneuve told Collider in a recent interview while promoting Dune: Part Two. He expanded:
"Sometimes I remove shots and I say, ‘I cannot believe I’m cutting this out.’ I feel like a samurai opening my gut. It’s painful, so I cannot go back after that and create a Frankenstein and try to reanimate things that I killed. It’s too painful. When it’s dead, it’s dead, and it’s dead for a reason. But yes, it is a painful project, but it is my job. The movie prevails. I’m very, I think, severe in the editing room. I’m not thinking about my ego, I’m thinking about the movie."
Don't expect any Dune deleted scenes anytime ever
As much as I'd love to see whatever extra footage of Dune anyone would like to show me, I kind of love Villeneuve's approach here. Putting the art first, rather than stringing out deleted scenes to bolster profits or attention, is admirable. And judging by how good Dune: Part One was, it clearly seems to work for him.
Given the choice, I much prefer Villeneuve's method than, say, the way Netflix is releasing an extended cut of Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon, which is apparently just a good version of the movie instead of the half-baked one that was originally released. Perhaps not every director has it in them to commit the film industry equivalent of sepuku in the editing room, but I'm glad that Villeneuve does because the first Dune movie was excellent. It bodes well for Part Two.
Here's hoping all the best bits ended up in the movie, and Villeneuve didn't have to kill too many darlings. Dune: Part Two is out in theaters on March 1.
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