Denis Villeneuve responds to Quentin Tarantino refusing to watch Dune

Just last month, Quentin Tarantino shared a few hot takes on recent movies, including his refusal to watch Denis Villeneuve’s Dune because he’s already seen David Lynch’s version. “I saw [David Lynch’s] Dune a couple of times,” Tarantino said. “I don’t need to see that story again. I don’t need to see spice worms. I don’t need to see a movie that says the word ‘spice’ so dramatically.“

Villeneuve recently took part in a Q&A at Concordia University’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema in Montreal, where he had a simple response to Tarantino’s refusal to watch Dune. “I don’t care,” Villeneuve said, which prompted the audience to erupt in laughter. However, he did agree with Tarantino in one area. “I agree with him that I don’t like this idea of recycling and bringing back old ideas,” he said. “But where I disagree is that what I did was not a remake. It’s an adaptation of the book. I see this as an original.” Villeneuve then added, “But we are very different human beings.“

I would say Tarantino is missing out. While Lynch’s movie and Villeneuve’s movies do share the same source in Frank Herbert’s novel, they are very different animals.

“It’s one after another of this remake and that remake,” Tarantino said. “People ask have you seen ‘Dune’? Have you seen ‘Ripley?’ Have you seen ‘Shōgun’?” And I’m like no, no, no, no. There’s six or seven Ripley books. If you do one again, why are you doing the same one that they’ve done twice already? I’ve seen that story twice before, and I didn’t really like it in either version, so I’m not really interested in seeing it a third time. If you did another story, that would be interesting enough to give it a shot anyway.“

As for Dune, Villeneuve is set to return to Arrakis for a third installment of the franchise. However, he’s 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.“