Denis Villeneuve says that it will be a sprint to finish Dune on time

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

It's safe to say that Denis Villeneuve's adaptation of Frank Herbert's "Dune" is easily my most anticipated film of the year, and although production on the film was completed (minus a few reshoots) before COVID-19 shut everything down, Villenueve said in a recent interview that it will still be a sprint to the finish line in order to get DUNE ready in time for its release at the end of the year.

I was planning to go back and shoot some elements later because I wanted to readjust the movie. I needed time. At the time I didn’t know that it would be a pandemic…as we were about to go back to do those elements. The impact was that it crushed my schedule right now. It will be a sprint to finish the movie on time right now, because we were allowed to go back to shoot those elements in a few weeks…it meant also that I have to finish some elements of the movie, like VFX and the editing, being in Montreal as my crew stayed in Los Angeles.

Like most films which have been in post-production during the shutdown, much of the work on DUNE has been done remotely, but Denis Villeneuve quickly realized that this makes his job much more difficult in regards to the editing room. "As a director, there are things that can be done remotely to deal with technology," Villeneuve said. "The supervision of VFX with some equipment is easy to do from afar but, editing, for me, the big lesson from this is I thought it would be possible to edit at a distance. With my editor [Joe Walker] sharing equipment, being afar from the [one another], but I realize how much editing is like playing music with someone and you need to be in the same room. There’s something about the interaction, human interaction, the spontaneity, the energy in the room. I really miss not being in the same room as my editor….it’s very, very painful." I've no doubt that Villeneuve will be able to pull it off.

The sprawling all-star cast of DUNE includes Timothée Chalamet's (THE KING) as Paul Atreides, Rebecca Ferguson (DOCTOR SLEEP) as Lady Jessica, and Oscar Isaac (STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER) as Duke Leto Atreides. The film also stars Stellan Skarsgard (THOR) as the villainous Baron Harkonnen, Dave Bautista (BLADE RUNNER 2049) as his sadistic nephew, Glossu "Beast" Rabban, Charlotte Rampling (RED SPARROW) as the Reverend Mother Mohiam, the emperor's truthsayer, Josh Brolin (AVENGERS: ENDGAME) as Gurney Halleck, a troubadour-swordsman, Javier Bardem (PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES) as Stilgar, the leader of the Fremen, Jason Momoa (AQUAMAN) as Duncan Idaho, a swordmaster in the house of Atreides, Zendaya (SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME) as Chani, a Fremen who becomes a love interest to Paul Atreides, and David Dastmalchian (ANT-MAN AND THE WASP) as Piter De Vries, a twisted Mentat. DUNE will be hitting theaters on December 18, 2020.