Dune: Part Two was a hell of a movie, and Josh Brolin certainly believes that it will have Oscar glory in the future. In fact, Brolin laid down the gauntlet last month, saying that he will “quit acting” if director Denis Villeneuve doesn’t get nominated for an Academy Award. “[Dune: Part Two] was a better movie than the first one. When I watched it, it felt like my brain was broken open,” Brolin said. “It’s masterful, and Denis is one of our master filmmakers. If the Academy Awards have any meaning whatsoever, they’ll recognize him.“
That’s a lot of pressure to put on someone, and Denis Villeneuve responded to Brolin’s statement while speaking with GamesRadar+. “That gives me a tremendous amount of responsibility, putting all of that on my shoulders!” The Dune director said. “Thanks, Josh. That’s embarrassing! I mean if Josh does decide to quit acting, it will be my responsibility to fight him on it.“
The first Dune received a lot of love at the Academy Awards in 2022, with ten nominations. It won six awards, including Best Original Score, Best Sound, Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, and Best Visual Effects. And hey, if Villeneuve strikes out again, he’ll get another chance when he returns to Arrakis for a third installment of the franchise. However, the director has said that he doesn’t view Dune 3 as the completion of a trilogy. “First, it’s important that people understand that for me, it was really a diptych,” Villeneuve said. “It was really a pair of movies that will be the adaptation of the first book. That’s done and that’s finished. If I do a third one, which is in the writing process, it’s not like a trilogy. It’s strange to say that, but if I go back there, it’s to do something that feels different and has its own identity.“
There’s more story that could be told with Dune, but Villeneuve has said that this will likely be his last journey to Arrakis. That said, he’s fine if something else wants to continue the franchise. “Listen, if ‘Dune: Messiah’ happens, it will have been many years for me on Arrakis, and I would love to do something else,” he said. “I think that it would be a good idea for me to make sure that, in ‘Messiah,’ there are the seeds in the project if someone wants to do something else afterwards, because they are beautiful books. They are more difficult to adapt. They become more and more esoteric. It’s a bit more tricky to adapt, but I’m not closing the door. I will not do it myself, but it could happen with someone else.“