Coming off the critically-acclaimed
Blade Runner 2049, Denis Villeneuve now has his sights set on another sci-fi masterpiece - Frank Herbert's
Dune. Villeneuve is currently working on the script for
Dune, and in a series of interviews the writer/director opened up about his new project, which he says he's "totally focused on" and even "obsessed" with.
"It’s a story that [stuck] with me [right out of] the gate. I think that the culture created by Frank Herbert was such a strong portrait of today’s world. The way it explores the relationship between religion and politics, natural resources, the ecosystem. It’s very, very inspiring," Villeneuve said to Mic.
"It’s by far one of the best novels I’ve read. It triggers very old dreams in me, so I’m trying to bring back those dreams to my consciousness."
Villeneuve continued,
"I’m totally focused on Dune right now. Obsessed — I dream about it all the time. I don’t know if it’s going to be possible, I don’t know if I will make the movie. I don’t know if we will all agree on the screenplay, I don’t know. Maybe in six months I will be unemployed, but for now I’m dreaming about Dune."
Similar to his work on
Blade Runner 2049, there's actually pre-existing material for
Dune as well. In addition to the 1965 Frank Herbert novel,
Dune was also released as a film in 1984, written and directed by David Lynch. Villeneuve complimented Lynch's adaptation in a separate interview with
Vanity Fair.
"
The look of David Lynch’s Dune is masterful. The design is insane, honestly," he said of the previous adaptation. But unlike his
Blade Runner sequel, Villeneuve says he feels "totally free" while working on his version of
Dune.
"In Blade Runner, I had to deal with someone else’s dreams, which is very complex,” Villeneuve told Mic, reflecting on the need to stay true to the world that director Ridley Scott originally created.
“Now I’m doing my own adaptation of something coming out of my own inner images. It’s known territory.”
Despite the lack of certainty still surrounding his script, Villeneuve is confident about one thing:
"Dune will definitely be made for IMAX. I think that it will be insane to shoot that movie in that technology."
With a number of successful films already under his belt -
Sicario, Arrival, and
Blade Runner 2049 to name a few - it's hard to imagine a world in which
a Denis Villeneuve-directed Dune won't live up to fan expectations. As for box office expectations? That's probably
a whole other conversation.
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