When director Denis Villeneuve contacted Oscar-nominated costume designer Jacqueline West about creating the costumes for Dune: Part One, she initially turned him down. Speaking at a masterclass for Qatar’s Doha Film Institute, West told the audience (as reported by Deadline), “I said, ‘I don’t do sci-fi. It’s not my thing.’ I said no. He hired someone else, and I guess he wasn’t happy because he called my agent a second time and said, ‘Can I just talk to her.’ Mary Parent, who produced The Revenant and was producing Dune, got me in her office and put me on FaceTime with him on a big screen. He was so compelling. He said, ‘I want you because I do not want it to look like sci-fi. I want it to be classical. I don’t want it to look like a video game.’” Her time on Dune: Part One went so well, West returned to design the costumes for Dune: Part Two, the second half of Villeneuve’s two-part adaptation of the Frank Herbert novel Dune, which has a release date of November 3, 2023. And during the masterclass, West also talked about the worlds and characters we’ll be seeing in Dune: Part Two.
Revealing that Dune: Part Two required a lot more work than its predecessor did, West said, “We made a lot of costumes. In Part Two, you really dive into the different worlds of Dune. We see what the emperor’s world looks like. We go to his planet. We spend a lot of time on Giedi Prime, the Harkonnen planet. We spend a lot of time in Stellan Skarsgård’s [Vladimir Harkonnen] world. Feyd-Rautha [Harkonnen] also comes into this one, brilliantly played by Austin Butler, Elvis. He is pretty fabulous in it. All the worlds get expanded. It was about creating three separate, different-looking worlds and also revisiting the Bene Gesserits, the age-old ones with these costumes that almost look like Egyptian mummies. I think it’s visually stunning, the sets, the cinematography and the concepts.“
Scripted by Villeneuve, Eric Roth, and Jon Spaihts, Dune: Part One (watch or buy it HERE) stars Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides, “a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding” who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence – a commodity capable of unlocking humanity’s greatest potential – only those who can conquer their fear will survive. Coming to us from Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment, Dune: Part Two will explore the mythic journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a warpath of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, he endeavors to prevent a terrible future only he can foresee.
Chalamet is joined in the cast by fellow returning Dune: Part One cast members Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Charlotte Rampling, Stephen McKinley Henderson, and Josh Brolin, as well as new additions Austin Butler, Tim Blake Nelson, Christopher Walken, Florence Pugh, Souheila Yacoub, and Léa Seydoux.
Villeneuve and Spaihts wrote the screenplay for Dune: Part Two. Villeneuve is also producing the film with Mary Parent, Cale Boyter, Tanya Lapointe, and Patrick McCormick. Spaihts serves as executive producer alongside Josh Grode, Herbert W. Gains, Brian Herbert, Byron Merritt, Kim Herbert, Thomas Tull, Richard P. Rubinstein, and John Harrison. Kevin J. Anderson is creative consultant.
Are you looking forward to seeing the worlds, characters, and costumes Dune: Part Two will have on display? Let us know by leaving a comment below.