In conjunction with the release of the final trailer for Dune, director Denis Villeneuve had several interviews today dealing with Dune as well as his past attempt at big budget science fiction with Blade Runner 2049. In regards to Dune, in a virtual interview with Wired, Villeneuve essentially confirmed everyone's theory that it had to do with fear of condensing Frank Herbert's original 1965 novel's story into a single film:
"The decision I made right at the beginning, and everybody agreed with it, is that the book is—there’s so much to tell. It was too much for one movie. Or you make a five-hour movie and everybody hates you because it’s too long. So we decided to make it in two parts. The story of the first movie sustains itself. When you look at it, I think it’s satisfying. But to complete the story, you need a second movie."
In a separate interview with MTV's Happy Sad Confused podcast, the director reflected on 2017's Blade Runner 2049, a sequel to the classic 1984 film Blade Runner. Despite critical acclaim, the film only made $259.3 million on an estimated $150–185 million budget. And while not held against Villeneuve or the film itself, the director revealed he has been critical of himself since:
“I knew that when I did this movie I flirted with disaster. I put myself into massive artistic danger. That was walking, as Christopher Nolan said to me once…walking on sacred territory. It’s true. It was sacrilegious what I did. I was told, ‘You don’t do that.’ Just the fact that I’m still here making movies, for me…at least I wasn’t banned from the filmmaker community. It was a dangerous game.”
Dune seems to be ready to be a different story. The film has already made $103 million at the international box office though it's still uncertain how the film will be received in the states. We'll find out in a couple weeks on October 22nd when it's released in theaters and on HBO Max. Fingers crossed for those hoping to see the rest of the classic novel adapted.
Dune stars Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Zendaya, David Dastmalchian, Chang Chen, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa, and Javier Bardem.
'Prisoners' was his best movie.
I've seen it on the internets. It sucks. They only get half way through the first book. It moves at a snails pace.