Hang the lights, prop up the green screen, and prepare to get spicy because production on Dune: Part Two is happening! While speaking with Collider, director Denis Villeneuve confirmed that the sequel is in “full prep” and that a script is “mostly finished.” With less than two years to complete the film, Villeneuve and his team will need to work around the clock to capture all the action.
While speaking with Collider about the pressure of making Dune: Part Two, Villeneuve suggested that making the sequel comes with a unique set of challenges.
“The first one, it was more to make sure that we will land in the world and that the movie will be accepted. Now it’s to make sure that we can close that first book, so it’s like there’s some premises that are in the first movie that I need to ignore. So yeah, I think I would say there’s more pressure with the second one in some ways.”
Villeneuve also provided the outlet with an update on the screenplay for Dune: Part Two, saying the script is “in his hands” and that it will continue to require re-writes until “the final cut” is decided.
“The screenplay is finished mostly, but it’s always a work in progress. It’ll be a work in progress until the final cut, but I will say it’s solidified. I have a script in my hands. We are in prep right now.”
In addition to teasing aspects of the film’s production, Villeneuve confirmed that he’ll once again be taking full advantage of the IMAX cameras for the sequel. This suggests that Villeneuve and cinematographer Greig Fraser will include more epic landscapes, otherworldly technology, and action in the upcoming film.
Confirmed to be returning for Dune: Part Two are Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, and Stellan Skarsgard, with Florence Pugh and Austin Butler also set to join the cast. If all goes well, there’s a chance that Dune will receive a third film based on Frank Herbert’s novel Dune Messiah.
“There are a few tantalizing strands that lead into the future and suggest that we might not be done in this universe, despite the fact that the ending of ‘Dune’ as a novel, which will be the ending of the second film, is a very satisfying conclusion,” Dune writer Jon Spaihts told The Playlist. “There are a number of ways in which the book also sounds ominous notes, and there are hints of foreboding about what made be yet to come.”
“Dune Messiah is the next book, and it’s one of three books with ‘Dune,’ ‘Dune Messiah,’ and ‘Children of Dune,’ that covers the lives of the characters we meet in the first novel. Subsequently, there’s a giant leap in time and the series gets stranger and more epic as it carries on. But ‘Dune Messiah’ picks up years after the close of ‘Dune,’ and yes, Denis has talked seriously about making that film as well, as a conclusion of the trilogy”
On a scale of 1 to 10, how excited are you for Dune: Part Two? Let us know in the comments section below.