I count it as good news whenever it's announced that Javier Bardem has joined the cast of a film, so I'm glad to hear that he is taking a role in director Denis Villeneuve's adaptation of the classic Frank Herbert novel DUNE.
Bardem is the latest addition to a cast that's headed up by Timothee Chalamet as
Paul Atreides, whose family assumes control of the desert planet Arrakis. As the only producer of a highly valuable resource, jurisdiction over Arrakis is contested among competing noble families. After Paul and his family are betrayed, the story explores themes of politics, religion, and man’s relationship with nature, as Paul leads a rebellion to restore his family’s reign.
Co-stars will include Rebecca Ferguson as Paul's mother Lady Jessica, Oscar Isaac as his father Duke Leto Atreides, Stellan Skarsgard as the villainous Baron Harkonnen, Dave Bautista as Harkonnen's brutish nephew, Charlotte Rampling as the emperor's truthsayer Reverend Mother Mohiam, and Zendaya as Chani Kynes, "the girl of Paul's dreams".
After his roles in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN and SKYFALL, Bardem is usually expected to play a villain in a movie like this, but that's not the case this time. He'll be playing Stilgar, "leader of the Sietch Tabr, a Fremen tribe living on the planet Arrakis. He and his people play a significant role in helping Paul and Lady Jessica."
Reports of Bardem's casting originally mentioned that he and Zendaya will both be wearing "striking blue contact lenses to show the effects of the Spice melange on Arrakis' Fremen." For some reason, that detail has been removed from some reports.
Blue contacts or not, I look forward to seeing Bardem in DUNE. The project is scheduled to go into production this spring, with filming to take place in Budapest and Jordan.
Villeneuve worked on the screenplay with Eric Roth and Jon Spaihts, and is producing the adaptation with Mary Parent and Cale Boyter. Brian Herbert, Byron Merritt, Thomas Tull, and Kim Herbert are executive producing, with Kevin J. Anderson serving as creative consultant.