Pattinson is one of the stars of Dune: Part Three, the final chapter in Denis Villeneuve‘s acclaimed sci-fi trilogy. Pattinson’s role remains under wraps. However, he is rumored to be playing Scytale, the film’s villain.
While he remained silent on his role, Pattinson raved about the unique opportunity he experienced on the set of Dune 3.
“You’ll never experience these things in any other profession,” Pattinson said to GQ. “I mean, literally, I was experiencing things which hardly anybody in history has or will ever experience, and it’s just absolutely incredible.”
One of Pattinson’s co-stars is Zendaya, who returns to play Chani. Pattinson also worked with Zendaya on Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and Kristoffer Borgli’s The Drama. While working on Zendaya, Pattinson recalled the moment when it finally kicked in that he was on a Dune set.
“Being out in the desert shooting Dune, it’s weird,” Pattinson recalled. “I remember shooting a scene with Zendaya, the first scene we shot together out in the desert, I’m like, ‘Oh! We’re, like, in Dune!’ And she’s like, ‘Yeah . . . we’re doing a Dune movie.’ But it really was like, ‘It really feels like you’re in a Dune movie.’ It was really, really fun.”
In Dune: Part Three, Timothée Chalamet reprises his role as Paul Atreides. The movie will jump ahead 15 to 20 years into the future from when we last saw Paul. Dune 3 also stars Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan, Anya Taylor-Joy as Alia Atreides, Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho, Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck, Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica, Nakoa-Wolf Momoa as Leto II Atreides, and Ida Brooke as Ghanima Atreides.
Villeneuve directs Dune: Part Three from a screenplay he co-wrote with Jon Spaihts. The movie is based on Dune Messiah, a 1969 novel by Frank Herbert.
Dune: Part Three is scheduled to be released on December 18, 2026.
Originally reported by Dan Girolamo for SuperHeroHype.
If you think gifts for movie lovers begin and end with Blu-Rays and cineplex gift cards, think again. There’s lots of ways to get creative (and impress) the film fan in your life.
For the very forward-thinking, you could help the Christopher Nolan fan in your life brush up on “The Odyssey” before next July with Emily Wilson’s translation (at bookstores.)
Here are a few of our other favorite finds this holiday season for all kinds of movie fans.
The ultimate Wes Anderson box set
The Criterion Collection’s 20-disc Wes Anderson Archive box set is an investment for the true diehard. Anchored around 10 films over the past 25 years, from “Bottle Rocket” through “The French Dispatch,” the mammoth package includes new 4K masters, over 25 hours of special features, and 10 illustrated, chicly clothbound books, as well as essays from the likes of Martin Scorsese and James L. Brooks. $399.96.
Mise en Scènt candles
Home movie nights need the right atmosphere, and this female-owned, Brooklyn-based company creates (and hand pours) candles inspired by favorite movies. Their bestselling — and sometimes out of stock — “Old Hollywood” candle will bring you back to the silver screen’s golden age with the smell of “deep, smoky and worn-in leather,” which might be ideal with TCM playing in the background. The “Rom Com” scent evokes the feeling of a “meet-cute in a grocery aisle” with something clean, fresh and floral (maybe for watching “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life” or “Materialists” ). There’s also a “French New Wave” candle that would work well with Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague.” Other scents include “Mystery,” “Fantasy,” “Macabre,” “Villain Era,” “Bad Movie” and “Main Character.” Starting at $24.
Baby’s first movie book
These adorable and beautifully illustrated board books take parents and kids on a journey through genres, from “My First Hollywood Musical” and “My First Sci-Fi Movie” to the very niche “My First Giallo Horror” and “My First Yakuza Movie.” There are also three box sets available for $45 each. Oscar-winning “Anora” filmmaker Sean Baker called them his “go-to gifts for new parents.” From ’lil cinephile. Starting at $15.
Pajamas fit for a KPop Demon Hunter
Rumi’s “choo choo” pajama pants would make a cozy gift for days when you find yourself chanting “Couch! Couch! Couch!” Don’t understand what any of that means? Don’t worry, the “KPop Demon Hunters” fan in your life will. Available from Netflix. $56.95.
A Roger Deakins memoir
Even if you don’t know the name Roger Deakins you certainly know his work — simply put, he’s one of the greatest working cinematographers in the business. His credits include “Fargo,” “The Big Lebowski,” “No Country for Old Men,” “Sicario,” “Skyfall” and “1917.” Fittingly, his memoir “Reflections: On Cinematography” is uniquely visual, with never-before-seen storyboards, sketches and diagrams. The 76-year-old Oscar winner also looks back on his life, his early love of photography and how he found his way into 50 years of moviemaking, where he’d find longstanding partnerships with some of the great auteurs, from the Coen brothers to Sam Mendes and Denis Villeneuve. Hachette Book Group. $45.
An alternative streamer for cinephiles
If Netflix is too pedestrian for the cinephile in your life, the Kino Film Collection offers a robust and rotating lineup of classic and current art house and indie films. Categories include Cannes Favorites (like Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Dogtooth”), Classics (like “The General,” “Metropolis” and “Nosferatu”) and New York Times Critics’ Picks (like Jafar Panahi’s “Taxi” and Agnieszka Holland’s “Green Border”). At $5.99 a month or $59.99 year, it’s also less expensive than the Criterion Channel ($10.99/month, $99/year) and Mubi ($14.99/month, $119.88/year).
The Celluloid card game
Who’s the biggest film buff in your family or group of friends? This clever card game might have the answer for you. Each Celluloid card contains prompts (like location, character and action) and you have to pick a movie that fits as many cards as possible. $19.
An expressionistic dive into Chloé Zhao’s ‘Hamnet’
Oscar-winning filmmaker Chloé Zhao, actor Jessie Buckley and photographer Agata Grzybowska collaborated on a gorgeous coffee-table book about “Hamnet,” opening in theaters in limited release on Nov. 27 and expected to be a major Oscar contender. The film, based on Maggie O’Farrell’s story, which won the National Book Critics Circle prize for fiction, imagines the circumstances around the death of William Shakespeare’s 11-year-old son and how it may have influenced the writing of “Hamlet.” The coffee-table book, called “Even as a Shadow, Even as a Dream,” is not a making-of, or behind-the-scenes look in any conventional sense, but an otherworldly, haunting companion piece of carefully chosen images and words. Mack books. $40.
“When I was doing Dune it was so hot in the desert that I just couldn’t question anything,” he recalled. “And it was so relaxing, like my brain actually wasn’t operating, I did not have a single functioning brain cell. And I was just listening to Denis [Villeneuve]: ‘Whatever you want!’
While details surrounding Pattinson’s character in the third installment of the sci-fi franchise have been kept under wraps, sources previously told The Hollywood Reporterthat the Twilight alum would likely be playing the chief villain in the film.
Pattinson isn’t the first Dune star to open up about filming in the desert elements. Zendaya, who plays Chani, previously told W Magazine that she got heatstroke while filming Dune: Part Two in Jordan because she wasn’t drinking enough water.
“It was very hot, and I remember thinking, ‘Oh, man, the bathrooms are so far away,’ because we had to hike to the locations,” she recalled. “If you have to pee, you need at least 10 minutes to get out of the costumes. I was like, Damn, I don’t want to drink too much water. I had such a fear of peeing myself or shitting myself, honestly, in the suit on set.”
Zendaya continued, “One day, I didn’t drink enough and I had a heatstroke. I felt so barfy. I remember calling my mom on the bathroom floor, saying, ‘I feel terrible.’ She was like, ‘Did you drink water today?’ I said no. I thought I was being smart, but you can’t do that. So, lesson learned.”
Austin Butler, who portrayed villain Feyd-Rautha in the second installment, also previously shared his experience working in what he described as an “uncomfortable environment.”
“It was 110 degrees and so hot,” he explained to Entertainment Weekly. “I had the bald cap on, and it was between two soundstages that were just these gray boxes of 200-foot walls and sand. It became like a microwave. There were people passing out from heatstroke. And that was just my first week.”
Dune: Messiah is set to be released on Dec. 18, 2026. Returning castmembers include Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Jason Momoa, Josh Brolin, Rebecca Ferguson and Anya Taylor-Joy.
As the 007 casting speculation reaches across the pond, Austin Butler is taking himself out of the running.
The Oscar nominee admitted it “would be kind of sacrilegious” for him to play the British MI6 agent as a California-born-and-raised actor, despite his willingness to work with his Dune: Part Two (2024) director Denis Villeneuve again.
“No calls as far as that goes, but I love that man,” he told Hits Radio UK. “Would I play James Bond? I don’t think that would be a good idea. Because I’m an American. I can do an accent but that would be kind of sacrilegious.
Butler continued, “Those movies meant so much to me, but I think that it’s gotta be somebody who is from [England].”
On the other hand, “Villain? That would be alright. I’d do that.”
In June, Amazon MGM Studios officially tapped Villeneuve to direct the next installment, and last month, Steven Knight was announced to write the film amid the studio’s new 007 partnership with returning producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. Tanya Lapointe will executive produce.
After announcing that Amy Pascal and David Heyman will produce the next film in the franchise, Amazon MGM’s Courtenay Valenti and Sue Kroll said at CinemaCon in April that the pair of “filmmaking legends” is currently in London working on the film.
“We are committed to honoring the legacy of this iconic character, while bringing a fresh, exhilarating new chapter to audiences around the world alongside Amy and David,” said Valenti, head of Film, Streaming and Theatrical. “They are both in London getting started and couldn’t be here tonight, but we wanted to thank them for what we know will be an incredible partnership. Thank you, Amy and David!”
Daniel Craig played the iconic role in Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace (2008), Skyfall (2012), Spectre (2015) and No Time to Die (2021). Following previous Bond stars Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan, Craig’s successor has not yet been chosen.
On Sept. 10, the Canadian director will introduce a screening of Dune: Part One at the Scotiabank Theatre and, after an intermission, will follow up a screening of Dune: Part Two with a Q&A session. Villeneuve, a frequent visitor to TIFF, is expected to let his festival audience in on his creative process behind bring Frank Herbert’s epic saga to the big screen.
The original Dune film in 2021 starred Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, and Zendaya. Villeneuve’s Dune grossed more than $402 million at the worldwide box office, an impressive number that came amid the pandemic and a day-and-date release on what was then called HBO Max.
The long-delayed Dune: Part Two sequel, running close to three hours and released earlier this year, included the return of Chalamet, Zendaya, Ferguson, Javier Bardem and Brolin, as well as fresh faces Austin Butler and Florence Pugh.
Dune: Part Two picked up right after the first installment, as Chalamet’s Paul Atreides joins forces with the Fremen and seeks revenge against the enemies who murdered his family, possibly saving the universe along the way.
In all, TIFF’s Dune double-header from Legendary and Warner Bros. is expected to run to 400 minutes in length on the downtown Imax screen. Tickets to the public screening will go on sale Aug. 28 and fans will have to pay to see both films as part of the festival package.
The Toronto Film Festival is set to run from Sept. 5 to 15.
As was foretold in Fatboy Slim’s “Weapon of Choice” music video, in which Christopher Walken danced to a line from Dune (“Walk without rhythm, It won’t attract the worm”), the actor would be destined to join Frank Herbert’s sci-fi universe in Denis Villeneuve’s acclaimed adaptation. In fact, Dune: Part Twobrought Walken out of a four-year acting break.
Denis Villeneuve on Ending Dune: Part Two That Way
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Walken discussed why he took on the role of the formidable Emperor who sets in motion the fall and rise of House Atreides in Dune. “I had, of course, seen the first Dune a number of times. I loved it, and I admired [Villeneuve’s] movies. Arrival, I thought, was wonderful. And to be with all those terrific actors—Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin, Timothée Chalamet, Florence Pugh, and Stellan Skarsgård—and to go to Budapest, which is a beautiful city. And of course, that’s what I do for a living. It was only, I think, three weeks. So, everything about it was attractive,” he said to the magazine.
Walken, who had somehow not yet been scooped up by a sci-fi epic, also revealed that he was almost in Star Wars but the timing wasn’t right. “I think it was for Han Solo,” Walken shared. “Yes, I auditioned for it. And if I’m not mistaken, my partner in the audition was—I think this is true—it was Jodie Foster. I think we did a screen test. I’m not sure we did a scene. Maybe we just sat in front of, in those days, those old videotape cameras… I did audition for Star Wars, but so did about 500 other actors. It was lots of people doing that.” But as was fated by “Weapon of Choice,” Walken was all along meant to be the Emperor in Dune.
The blockbuster Dune: Part Two is nearly three hours long, but it could have been even longer. And director Denis Villeneuve says that any cut scenes will not be seen by the public.
“I’m a strong believer that when it’s not in the movie, it’s dead,” the director told Collider when asked if he will release deleted scenes from the film for its upcoming Blu-ray release. “Sometimes I remove shots and I say, ‘I cannot believe I’m cutting this out. I feel like a samurai opening my gut. It’s painful, so I cannot go back after that and create a Frankenstein and try to reanimate things that I killed. It’s too painful. When it’s dead, it’s dead, and it’s dead for a reason. But yes, it is a painful project, but it is my job. The movie prevails. I’m very severe in the editing room. I’m not thinking about my ego, I’m thinking about the movie …. I kill darlings, and it’s painful for me.”
“I’ve made movies in my life that were 75 minutes, and this one is two hours, 45 [minutes], I think, something like that,” Villeneuve added. “It’s not the runtime, it’s about the storytelling, and I felt that I wanted to create a momentum. I wanted an energy in the movie that I was looking for that excited me, and I thought that was the perfect runtime … You can be bored by a five-minute movie.”
Villeneuve joins a list of directors who generally decline to release deleted scenes — such as Christopher Nolan and Martin Scorsese.
At least one actor who was entirely cut from the film: Tim Blake Nelson (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs) in an undisclosed role. Nelson told Movieweb, “I don’t think I’m at liberty to say what the scene was. I’d leave that to Denis if he wants to talk about it. I had a great time over there shooting it. And then he had to cut it because he thought the movie was too long. And I am heartbroken over that, but there’s no hard feelings. I loved it, and I can’t wait to do something else with him and we certainly plan to do that.”
Internet sleuths have speculated that Nelson might have been cast as Count Hasimir Fenring, an assassin and advisor to the Emperor (Christopher Walken), who is married to Lady Fenring (Léa Seydoux). The character has a larger role to play in future Dune books, so perhaps he might still appear in Dune: Messiah should Warner Bros. greenlight another sequel (which seems rather likely given the film’s $80 opening weekend box office). Nelson will next be seen in Captain America: Brave New World.
There was another actor who didn’t make the film as well: Stephen McKinley Henderson played the House Atreides Mentat Thufir Hawat in Dune: Part One. He was officially announced as among the cast when filming began in July 2022, though curiously, Villeneuve recently suggested the decision was made earlier.
“One of the most painful choices for me on this one was [to not include] Thufir Hawat,” Villeneuve told Entertainment Weekly. “He’s a character I absolutely love, but I decided right at the beginning that I was making a Bene Gesserit adaptation. That meant that Mentats are not as present as they should be, but it’s the nature of the adaptation.”
So instead, the audience is left to assume Hawat was killed during the invasion. Interestingly, Count Fenring is also a Mentat, which could help explain why Nelson was cut.
Villeneuve has said he wants to make a Part Three based on Frank Herbert’s novel Dune Messiah and is actively working on script.
It’s March, and we’ve got our first big movie for 2024 in Warner Bros. and Legendary’s Dune: Part Two. Even as its release date shifted around a few times, there’s been a palpable excitement in the air for the second half of Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel, and that was before it was getting high marks from nearly everyone. Financially, it’s starting off on the right foot and doing better than originally projected.
Spoilers of the Week April 24-29
Per the Hollywood Reporter, Dune has shored up $178.5 million in its starting weekend. $97 million of this came internationally; in regions like France and South Korea, it released a few days ahead of its March 1 date in North America. For North America, it netted $81.5 million, double the opening take of Dune: Part One back in 2021 and also the highest-grossing movie of 2024 to date. The film was initially tracked to be in the $150-$175 million range, but its small surpassing of that suggests it may have a long tail ahead of it.
Beyond its collective star power and heavy marketing, folks seemed to groove with Part One in the years since its release, if they weren’t already into it. It also helps that there’s nothing else quite on this level in terms of blockbuster scale, and it looks like something worth going out to see in the theaters: per Deadline, $32.2 million of its global take came from IMAX screenings, and it’s now the second-biggest global weekend for an IMAX film behind Batman v Superman in 2016.
Tentpole-wise, the month of March has some other big films on the horizon: Kung Fu Panda 4 drops next week for the kids, along with Blumhouse’s Imaginary. Then we’ve got Ghostbusters: Frozen Empiretowards the end of the month on March 22, concluding with WB and Legendary’s own Godzilla x Kong: The New Empireon the 29th. At the moment, Dune has word of mouth on its side, ditto a desire to see this all come to a close with an eventual adaptation of Dune Messiah and those popcorn buckets, so time will tell how those movies fare against it.
Critics have dug their heads out of the sand to share what’s happening on Arrakis. Dune: Part Two, out March 1, is a triumph of vision, according to the early reports, but that doesn’t mean director Denis Villeneuve’s monumental scale and formal austerity have pleased everyone. For select reviewers, the film amounts to sand, beautiful sand, and some tepid anti-imperial themes. Other, more satisfied critical responses argue that Villeneuve’s casting and craft alchemy, juiced by a story with far more interesting beats than the first one had, make for an arresting watch. Part Two “belongs firmly to Zendaya, who gives the second half of Denis Villeneuve’s Frank Herbert adaptation an emotional tangibility that the first, in all its exotic majesty, eschewed,” writes Vulture critic Alison Willmore. New faces Christopher Walken, Austin Butler, and Florence Pugh reinvigorate the future hellscape, while the returning Timothée Chalamet does a movie-star turn, critics say. Let’s stick our hands in the popcorn-bucket orifice and see the first reactions from critics who watched Wonka ride the sandworm.
“Rather than soften the strangeness of its source material, Dune: Part Two shifts its perspective to one on the ground — to Zendaya’s character, the Fremen warrior Chani. She was more promise than actual presence in 2021’s Dune, a figure from Paul’s visions who’s only encountered in the flesh after the Harkonnen family ambushes and wipes out most of the Atreides forces. But she’s the soul of the new film, skeptical of all the messiah talk she rightfully believes was planted to control her people, and skeptical of this off-world upper-cruster who comes seeking refuge, swearing he’s not like the others and that he only wants to learn the ways of her people and help them.” —Alison Willmore, Vulture
“Whatever you do, don’t mistake this follow-up for a sequel. It’s the second half of a saga, which Villeneuve has hinted about wanting to carry through a third installment, provided Part Two earns enough for him to keep going. Like Christopher Nolan, the director is operating on the largest possible scale, pushing the medium to accommodate his vision. Also like Nolan, he has composer Hans Zimmer’s help in making everything sound as stunning as it looks.” —Peter Debruge, Variety
“If the movie is, among other things, a timely parable of Arab liberation, it’s at best a slippery and reluctant one, in which the politics of revolution feel curiously under-juiced. In retaining the material’s Arabic filigree, albeit with a glaring paucity of Arab actors in key Fremen roles, Villeneuve and his co-writer, Jon Spaihts, follow the text with a cautious, noncommittal blandness.” —Justin Chang, The New Yorker
“Like its predecessor, Dune: Part Two thrums with an intoxicating big-screen expressionism of monoliths and mosquitos, fevered visions and messianic fervor — more dystopian dream, or nightmare, than a straightforward narrative.” —Jake Coyle, Associated Press
“It’s only toward the end of the film, a mighty crescendo in which big, universe-altering choices are made, that the film trips over its own momentum. Paul’s complicated evolution is slow and steady until, all of a sudden, it’s moving at breakneck speed. It feels as if we’ve skipped a crucial expositional step in order to get to the massive finale sequence. Chalamet is an effective communicator of Paul’s tortured ambitions, but he has trouble making it legible when it really counts, because Villeneuve hasn’t given him the time.” —Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair
“Heavy with biblical themes of prophecy, sacrifice, redemption and resurrection — with Shakespearean grace notes of fate, family and revenge — Dune: Part Two manages to be busy and oddly inert at the same time.” —Ann Hornaday, the Washington Post
“Part Two is plagued by a nagging shallowness when it comes to portraying the Fremen, an indigenous people fighting for self-determination within the empire; the film has difficulty fully embracing the nuance of Herbert’s anti-imperial and ecologically dystopian text.” —Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter
“Chalamet and Zendaya make an appealing duo, and the two performers fit together with tangible ease as their characters grow close. Both actors are fun to look at, and every bit as watchable and glamorous as old-fashioned Hollywood stars (I kept wondering what product he uses to tame his curls), which is amusing but makes sense for their outsize roles. Chalamet and Zendaya tend to overwork their glowers and puppy eyes in their less chatty scenes (the desert quiet can make loose talk deadly), but together they humanize the story, giving it the necessary personal stakes and a warmth that helps balance the chilling violence.” —Manohla Dargis, the New York Times
“While the plotting in Part Two is undeniably richer than the first film, its greatest assets are once again on a craft level. Greig Fraser, who won the Oscar for cinematography the first time, tops his work there with stunning use of color and light … Hans Zimmer’s Oscar-winning score felt a bit overdone to me in the first film, but he smartly differentiates the cultures here, finding more metallic sounds for the cold Harkonnens to balance against the heated score for the Fremen. Finally, the effects and sound design feel denser this time, and the fight choreography reminds one how poorly this has been done in other blockbuster films.” —Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com
“Once again, the biblical solemnity of Villeneuve’s approach — along with the tactile brutalism of his design — have combined into a Timothée Chalamet movie that shimmers with the patina of an epic myth. And once again, the awesome spectacle that Villeneuve mines from all that scenery is betrayed by the smallness of the human drama he stages against it, with the majesty of the movie’s first hour desiccating into the stuff of pure tedium as Paul Atreides struggles to find his voice amid the visions that compel him forward. It’s a struggle that Dune: Part Two continues to embody all too well.” —David Ehrlich, IndieWire
“In Villeneuve’s hands, a sci-fi epic like Dune: Part Two can deliver what’s expected — big stakes, big conflicts, big explosions — but it can do so in a clear and rigorously consistent visual language that serves the story. Even in the biggest battle scenes, his camera keeps us focused on what matters most — the human cost of it all.” —Glen Weldon, NPR
“[Villeneuve] widens our eyes with big action hugeness — the products of an army of visual effects experts — but then asks us, as he did with 2016’s Arrival, to interpret and connect the dots. Less an act of literary fidelity than generosity, his sequel plunges us into the book’s messianic prophecies, but also into spiritual uncertainty, cultural conflict and doubt, as it must. Somehow, Villeneuve has made a Dune for right now — and tomorrow.” —Joshua Rothkopf, the Los Angeles Times
When you look at Dave Bautista, the last thing you think of is failure. Even if he wasn’t a former wrestling superstar turned mega movie star, if you saw this tall, muscular, tattoo-covered man walking down the street, you’d instantly think he’s got it figured out. But in Dune: Part Two, Bautista’s character doesn’t have anything figured out. And the actor loves him for it.
Working With Recasted Characters
Once again, Bautista is Glossu Rabban Harkonnen, nephew of Baron Harkonnen and the new lord of Arrakis… having massacred almost the entire Atreides family for the privilege. Rabban is given the task of taking over the entire planet for his family, with almost no knowledge of the formidable Fremen force he’s up against. It results in the character not faring too well in the eyes of his family, which is exactly why Bautista was so excited about the film.
In his chat with io9, we talked about playing the pathetic villain, his relationship with director Denis Villeneuve, the chip on his shoulder when it comes to acting, and if he’s really done with his famous Guardians of the Galaxy character, Drax. Check it out.
Rabban in Part OneImage: Warner Bros.
Germain Lussier, io9: Rabban doesn’t have a huge role in Part One—it’s a much bigger role here in Part Two. Was there ever a conversation between you and Denis to say, like, hey, we might not make the second movie, but if we do, [your character] will have more to do?
Dave Bautista: Well, I always knew that my role in the second film was going to be bigger. We never [laughs]… I only heard rumblings that there might not be a second film. We never had that official conversation with Denis. I think he always had confidence that there would be. I think he’s a person who has a vision and he doesn’t stray from that vision. I think his vision was never one film, so I think he never abandoned that. So we never had the conversation. And I also was pretty confident because I saw the first film and I was like, it’s amazing. It’s not only beautiful storytelling, but it just really cuts off and it leaves you hanging. And I didn’t see a world where people wouldn’t want to have closure on that. So I never lost faith at all. But it was a sign of the times we were living in. It was uncertain times. And I think a lot of people were cheated, not through the fault of anyone, but by not being able to see the first film on a big screen because that is what it what was designed for. That’s what it was meant to be. But yeah, I never thought that there wouldn’t be a second film.
io9: Most of the guys you play, for obvious reasons, are pretty capable, right? However this guy, besides his size and strength, is kind of an idiot.
Bautista: [Laughs]
io9: And kind of a failure. So was it fun to play somebody that is the butt of all the jokes?
Bautista: For sure. Yeah. For me, that’s why I’m in this, man. Because I want to play characters that are layered and interesting, and not clichés or generic. That’s also the challenge. But I also think that’s my obsession. So that’s what I loved about him. I was so excited when I read the script for the second film and I was even more excited after I had the conversation with Denis because I knew that there was so much for me to play with here. I mean, I always search out roles because I do have this chip on my shoulder. It’s never going to go away. I want to prove myself as an actor because guys like me, they want to put in a lane. And I never wanted to be stuck in that lane. So I came out of the WWE, came out of the gates refusing to be stuck in that lane. And so this gives me the opportunity to prove my point.
io9: Yes.
Bautista: So I thought, this character is so great because you would think about him in one way. He’s just one way. He’s just a brute and that’s all he is. But I thought, if I can take this character and make him not only that, but make him so pathetic that you almost feel sympathy for him.
io9: “Almost.”
Bautista: Yes, almost. [Laughs] I only need one little hint of sympathy when you’re like, you feel sorry for him for a second, then it’s like, “Nahhhhh, I don’t feel sorry for him.” But if I just had that one opportunity, then that could be a real accomplishment.
Bautista with Villeneuve and Austin Butler.Image: Warner Bros.
io9: Oh I think you nailed it. I think also he’s so angry early on in the movie—what was it like to be so vocal and angry?
Bautista: So, for me, screaming for me is just another way to get rid of my anxiety. I’ve always known that about myself. I discovered that in WWE and I just let it all out. On one side of the curtain in WWE, before I came out, I was dry heaving. I was a nervous wreck. I was a mess, and I was always thinking, “God, everything’s going to go wrong. I’m not ready. I’m not warmed up enough. Oh man, I don’t know what to do.” As soon as I hit that curtain, walked out the curtain, lights, music, [crowd roars]—anxiety gone. And it’s the same with this. So it just allowed me the opportunity to just shake that anxiety, and then I can just kind of slowly transform to this performance. But again, I mean, just the richness of the character, the layers of the character and the support and encouragement from Denis, he just made this very easy for me.
io9: Very cool. Now obviously this a big ensemble piece but, by the nature of your character, you don’t really get to act with most of the people in the movie. Is that isolating? Do you form a bond with the other people that you’re with?
Bautista: Yeah, for sure. No matter what you spend a lot of time with people in makeup trailers or on set or socially. There’s always a get-together, especially for the ensemble cast, where the director wants to meet with the cast. And so there’s always going to be that camaraderie. [But] selfishly, personally, like I want those scenes. I want scenes with Timmy [Chalamet]. I want scenes and Zendaya. I want scenes with Florence [Pugh]. I want a scene with Christopher Walken. But it just, you know, it wasn’t meant to be.
io9: You get a scene with Josh Brolin.
Bautista: You know, I love Josh. Josh is one of my favorite people in the world. I’ve known Josh for years now through our Marvel experiences. So I was pretty giddy getting to share scenes with him on this in this film. And it was just nothing but fun. And I love that our characters just despise each other. So it’s great.
Dave Bautista Opens Up About His Relationship With Denis Villeneuve
Dave Bautista Opens Up About His Relationship With Denis Villeneuve
io9: One of the things I love about your career, you talk about having that chip on your shoulder, is you work with such incredible filmmakers. Obviously, there’s Gunn, Snyder, Shyamalan, and Villeneuve. What sets Denis apart from the other ones you’ve worked with?
Bautista: Our conversations are different. And it’s hard for me having these conversations without sounding… because I never want to be dismissive of anybody else that I’ve worked with. They’ve all been special experiences. And they’ve all made me rise as a performer and helped me in my career. James Gunn changed my life. His belief in me, his support of me, changed my life. But our conversations have been different. Denis supports me in a different way.
Our conversations are more intimate. I’ve never had a director until Denis, since Denis, say to me that you’re a very strong actor. And he said this to me on the first film. I was holding back because I was self-conscious [and] I was. I was very unsure of myself. And he came to me. He said, “I feel like you’re holding back.” He said, “You’re a very strong actor, my friend. Just follow your instincts.” And so I started belting it out, and I started finding this character. He not only loved it so much, but he was so supportive of my performance that he wanted to capture other people’s reactions to my performance. And so when you’re getting that kind of support, that was an experience I’ve never had before or since, with a director of that caliber. So it means everything. It’s validation.
Image: Warner Bros.
io9: Wow, that’s awesome. SoI’m talking to Stellan [Skarsgård] after this and you have a lot of scenes with him. What is it like working with him in that suit? Because it’s got to be weird. Do you laugh or are you just serious? What’s the vibe?
Bautista: It’s very serious. We are respectful because we know that it’s harsh. The experience he’s gone through, like what he’s living with and what he’s dealing with. And you can tell through conversations while he’s working, that he’s already exhausted because he’s been in a makeup chair eight hours before we even started working. Eight hours, you’re typically leaving work.
io9: Right, right.
Bautista: He’s just starting work. And so it’s very respectful of him and what he’s going through. So we’re very respectful of his time. Everybody this is from the top down. But also the actors were very, aware that he’s suffering.
io9: Last thing is, I know you said on Guardians 3 that you were done with Marvel, but is there any way that you would come back, or have you just kind of put that part of your career aside?
Bautista: No, no. When I said that I was done, I was really just done with my journey as Drax. I still have a relationship with Marvel. I’ve seen Kevin Feige again, Lou [D’Esposito] as recently as two weeks ago. And they know that I would be up for a role. I love the universe—the superhero universe, I love it. I’m a fan. So Marvel or DC, if they call, I would answer the phone. And if the role makes sense, I’d be all over it. I just would like the opportunity to do a bigger role, a different role. Maybe a deeper role. I’d love to have the opportunity to play, like an ominous villain in the superhero universe. Yeah. But never. I’m not done with it. But my journey with Drax is over.
Reports of the death of Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) proved greatly exaggerated.
When it finally touched down in theaters three years ago, the most notable characteristic of Denis Villeneuve’s first Dune film was probably the fact that it existed at all. A properly monumental adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel had been something of a cinematic white whale (or worm, if you will), defeating filmmakers as illustrious as David Lynch and Alejandro Jodorowsky. After several decades’ worth of failed and abandoned attempts, Villeneuve (Arrival, Blade Runner 2049) and his collaborators pulled off an impressive achievement, bringing the cherished literary science-fiction tale to life in grandiose and relatively faithful fashion, all without sacrificing that essential blockbuster currency, spectacle.
Dune: Part One proved to be a thrilling and visionary work of epic sci-fi, although it had to shed some of the thematic sophistication of the book to attain such lofty heights. The feature hinted at the source material’s weighty social, religious, and ecological themes, but it was generally more focused on introducing the audience to the indelible, neo-feudal universe that Herbert created. The most notable thing about Dune: Part Two, then, is that it brings these themes to the forefront in a way that the first chapter could never quite manage, while also still delivering plenty of visceral action and awestruck world-building.
Picking up almost exactly where the previous feature (somewhat abruptly) left off, Part Two finds exiled-and-presumed-dead noble scion Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) warily accepting the hospitality of the Fremen, the native people of the desert planet Arrakis. Both mother and son quickly find their place in this new world. Paul learns the ways of the Freemen guerilla warriors who sabotage the spice-extraction efforts of Arrakis’s colonizers, the brutal House Harkonnen. Meanwhile, Jessica — a member of the enigmatic witch cabal the Bene Gesserit — assumes an esteemed spiritual role, exploiting the messianic myths of the Fremen and paving the way for her son’s ascendency. This doesn’t sit well with Paul, who is more focused on assimilating with his new allies and winning the affection of the hard-edged fighter Chani (Zendaya).
This summary barely scratches the arid surface of Dune: Part Two, which, like its predecessor, is fairly dense with intergalactic politicking and mystic gobbledygook. Villeneuve and co-writer Jon Spaihts approach this material with unflagging gravity, however. Their characters whisper urgently and roar defiantly, treating every moment with life-or-death, cosmic-scale weight. (Javier Bardem’s true-believer Fremen leader Stilgar is the only one who cracks the occasional droll joke.) Fortunately, Villeneuve excels at maintaining this kind of sobriety for two (or three) hours at a time, wooing the viewer with the potency of jaw-dropping sights and bone-rattling sounds. The absurdity of all the arcane sci-fi nonsense dissolves in the reactive heat of Dune’s epic bulk and overwhelming sensations. By the time the film visits a gladiatorial arena roaring under the monochromatic light of a black sun — complete with ink-blot fireworks — the viewer won’t even notice how silly the characters sound when they say phrases like “Kwisatz Haderach.”
Paul (Timothée Chalamet) and Chani (Zendaya) explore their attraction.
Chalamet rises to the occasion in this second chapter, holding on to Paul’s deep ambivalence while allowing his idealism, arrogance, and (eventually) holy zeal to fully emerge. In comparison, Zendaya’s role doesn’t demand as much of her, but Villeneuve’s revisions to the story at least give Chani more to do, lending her relationship with Paul a stronger and more mature sense of tragedy. Amid a gamut of new faces — Florence Pugh, Léa Seydoux, and Christopher Walken among them — Austin Butler is the showstopper as the bloodthirsty Harkonnen princeling Feyd-Rautha. It’s no small thing to upstage Sting’s unhinged, weirdly hypersexual take on the character from Lynch’s 1984 film version, but Butler gets there, albeit via a very different route. (Imagine Dracula as an edgelord albino salamander with a knife fetish and you’re halfway there.)
However, where Dune: Part Two truly impresses has less to do with its performances than the film’s facility for balancing blockbuster extravagance and stickier, more cerebral matters. Part One was concerned first and foremost with efficiently introducing an encyclopedia’s worth of people, places, and concepts. Consequently, the deeper aspects of Herbert’s story were mostly confined to the film’s characterization of Paul. This new feature, in contrast, tackles the novel’s thorniest themes head-on, illustrating the power of Chosen One tropes, the threat of runaway zealotry, and the temptation to believe your own bull plop. Indeed, Dune: Part Two might be the most clear-eyed film about saviors and schisms since Monty Python’s Life of Brian. (Seriously.)
Paul is beset by disturbing visions of a coming holy war that he is desperate to avert, but the future may already be beyond his power to control. Scheming and malignant forces surround him — political, economic, and religious — and the foes that want to eliminate him outright somehow seem less dangerous than those who want to wield him as a weapon. Most insidiously, the Bene Gesserit have been manipulating inter-galactic politics for centuries, seeding worlds with superstitions and nudging noble genealogies for their own inscrutable ends. Dune: Part Two insists that to use faith and prophecy in these kinds of cynical power games is to play with fire. As more than one character learns to their horror, a controlled burn can become a raging inferno in the blink of an eye.
LONDON – Zendaya is on a fashion roll, in a cyborg “Dune: Part Two” kind of way.
The co-star of the highly anticipated film sequel stunned Thursday at its world premiere when she hit the sand-strewn carpet in a silver robot suit straight from the archive of Mugler. It’s from the French fashion house’s fall/winter 1995 “Cirque d’hiver” 20th anniversary collection, according to a company statement.
That translates to “Winter Circus,” not unlike the fanfare surrounding the March 1 release of Denis Villeneuve’s second half of his sci-fi epic.
Zendaya’s body-hugging armor outfit with sheer plexiglass inserts has built-in gloves she paired with matching silver heels. Mugler gave special thanks to her stylist, Law Roach, in an email detailing the vintage look. While the runway version included a matching headpiece, Zendaya opted for a short sleek hairdo and a blue diamond necklace from Bulgari.
She was joined on the carpet by fellow stars Timothée Chalamet, Josh Brolin and Rebecca Ferguson, along with new cast members Austin Butler, Florence Pugh and Villeneuve.
The new film picks up where 2021’s “Dune” left off. Chalamet’s Paul Atreides unites with Zendaya’s Chani and the Fremen in order to seek revenge against those who killed his family members. Pugh, a newcomer to the world of “Dune” as the Emperor’s daughter, plays Princess Irulan with Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha.
Stellan Skarsgard, Christopher Walken, Charlotte Rampling and Javier Bardem round out the cast.
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Dune: Part Two, the upcoming sequel to Denis Villeneuve’s 2021 sci-fi epic based on the Frank Herbert novels, is releasing in just two weeks, but somehow the team behind it kept one major star’s involvement a total secret. During the February 15 world premiere in London, The Queen’s Gambit actor Anya Taylor-Joy appeared on the red carpet to confirm that she is, indeed, a member of the sequel’s cast. This came after an eagle-eyed Letterboxd user noticed that Dune: Part Two was listed under Taylor-Joy’s credits on the review aggregation app.
In Dune: Spice Wars The Spice Must Flow But Remember To Hydrate
Variety confirmed that Taylor-Joy is a part of the cast, which includes Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides, Zendaya as Chani, Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica, Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan, Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha, and many more huge Hollywood stars. But, Variety refused to “spoil” who Taylor-Joy is playing, and it doesn’t appear that anyone else is willing to say who, either.
Except me. Dune novel spoilers below, but let’s be real, the book came out in 1965.
Anya Taylor-Joy is probably Alia Atreides in Dune: Part Two
First, an attempt at a brief Dune synopsis. In the far future, an interstellar society is comprised of noble houses whose fiefdoms are entire planets. The Atreides family, led by Duke Leto (played by Oscar Isaac in Dune: Part One), is ordered to take a harsh desert planet known as Arrakis as its new fief. Though the planet is virtually inhospitable, it is the only source of the highly sought after resource known as “spice,” a psychedelic drug that is used in space navigation. But as soon as the Atreides family arrives on Arrakis, it’s clear that they’ve walked into a trap set by the rival House Harkonnen, who wants to wipe them out entirely.
As seen in Dune: Part One, the Harkonnens’ plan results in Leto’s death, and forces Paul and his mother, Jessica, to flee into the desert. It’s there that they come into contact withe the Fremen, Arrakis’ native people who have learned how to thrive (not just survive) on the harsh planet. There’s a whole messianic thing that I can’t even begin to get into, but what’s important here in regards to Taylor-Joy is this: Jessica is pregnant, and submits to the “spice agony,” a ritual where she takes a deadly amount of spice. Because she’s with child, the baby is exposed to the spice in utero, and is born possessing all the knowledge of a fully grown adult.
Alia Atreides looks and sounds like a child, but is a full-blown Reverend Mother, the highest tier attainable amongst the Bene Gesserit (a matriarchal order that has religious and political power). In David Lynch’s Dune from 1984, Alia is played by a child actor, but I think (especially when seeing what Taylor-Joy wore to the premiere, and how it compares to what Alia wears in Lynch’s film) that Villeneuve has figured out a way to present Alia as an adult.
The end, it turns out, is not near. Without revealing any details from the finale of Dune: Part Two, fans of Denis Villeneuve’s ethereal space epic should enter it braced for something of a cliff-hanger rather than a full-on resolution to the saga of Timothée Chalamet’s futuristic warrior prince.
When Villeneuve set out to adapt Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel, about warring factions on a valuable but desolate sand world, he cleaved the narrative neatly into two parts. Since then, he has openly speculated about also adapting Herbert’s 1969 sequel, Dune: Messiah, to transform the two-parter into a trilogy. In Dune: Part Two, which opens on March 1, Villeneuve creates a path to that next installment, but notes that this isn’t his own invention. It remains faithful to Herbert’s climax in the original novel.
“That’s how the book ends,” Villeneuve tells Vanity Fair. “The Dune book ends with the beginning of something that is out of control, and I thought this was a very powerful ending. I feel that both movies complete the adaptation of the book, and I feel very good about that. When people ask me, is there a world where I could do Messiah? Yes…”
The Messiah novel takes place 12 years after the conclusion of the first book, so Chalamet’s Paul Atreides may be hanging from that cliff for a while before the audience revisits his situation. “I will respect again Frank Herbert’s idea to jump in time. That’s what I would love to do,” Villeneuve says.
Although Villeneuve has cleared a path for that next installment, he’s not sure yet when he wants to make the journey in his own personal timeline. “I did Part One and Part Two back-to-back,” he says. “I remember that the next morning after the Academy Awards ceremony, I was having a chat with Jane Campion…[who had just won best director for The Power of the Dog]. Jane was saying to me, ‘Oh, I’m going on a retreat to meditate for a month now.’ Another director was saying, ‘I’m going on this island to have fun with my family for three weeks. I need a six-month break right now.’”
He and his wife, Tanya Lapointe, a producer of the Dune movies, had no such breather. “Tanya and I, we were going back to Budapest and our crew was waiting for us. We were in full pre-production. We didn’t have a second to rest between Part One and Part Two,” Villeneuve says. “I’m not complaining! I’m explaining that now I would just like to settle down a little bit and to think about how to approach a third chapter, the adaptation of Dune: Messiah, which makes absolute sense because it’s the end of the arc of Paul Atreides.”
Herbert wrote several other Dune novels, progressing through subsequent generations of his searing universe, but Villeneuve, who was a fan of the books as a child, finds himself most closely aligned with Chalamet’s character.
That doesn’t mean he intends to wait a dozen years to get back to work. The filmmaker says a break from Dune would help recharge his creativity and hopefully encourage him to take some bigger risks as the trilogy reaches its finale.
“I want to make sure that if we go back there a third time that it’ll be worth it, and that it would make something even better than Part Two,” Villeneuve says. “It needs to be different. I don’t want to fall into dogmas. I don’t want to fall into a vocabulary that has been predefined by the first two movies. I would love to make something different. We are figuring that out right now.”
The in-between time he seeks before returning relates mainly to producing and actually shooting a third Dune. Villeneuve admits that he has already started writing. “The screenplay’s in progress. I’m very happy where it’s going, but it’s not finished, and I don’t know how healthy it’ll be to go straight to Messiah right away,” he says. “It would be healthy to do something in between.”
Denis Villeneuvehas been quite vocal about his intention to make a third “Dune” movie, which would be based on Frank Herbert’s second novel in the series, “Dune Messiah.” Warner Bros. has not yet given the official greenlight on “Dune 3,” but should the studio move forward it will most likely mark Villeneuve’s final installment in the franchise despite Herbert’s literary series continuing with various sequels such as “Children of Dune,” “God Emperor of Dune,” “Heretics of Dune,” and “Chapterhouse: Dune.”
“’Dune Messiah’ should be the last ‘Dune’ movie for me,” Villeneuve confirmed to Time magazine in a new interview ahead of the theatrical release of “Dune: Part Two.”
The director said last December that “Dune Messiah” is “being written right now,” adding: “The screenplay is almost finished but it is not finished. It will take a little time…There’s a dream of making a third movie…it would make absolute sense to me.”
Zendaya, who stars as Chani in Villeneuve’s “Dune” movies, was recently asked by Fandango whether or not she would want to return for a third movie.
“Would we be down? I mean of course,” Zendaya said when asked about making another. “Any time Denis calls it’s a yes from me. I’m excited to see what happens. I started ‘Messiah’ and I was like, ‘Woah, I’m only shooting the first movie. Let me just go back to the first one.’ It’s so much to take in, but there’s no better hands with better care and love for it than Denis.”
“The idea excites me very much,” franchise leading man Timothee Chalamet later added to Total Film magazine. “If the time and opportunity comes to complete the story with ‘Messiah,’ I think we’re all super-enthusiastic about that.”
If Villeneuve gets the chance to direct “Dune Messiah,” it might not happen for a bit of a time. He’s spent the last six years devoted to making his first two “Dune” movies, and he might need a palette cleanser before he makes a third. He said at a press conference in South Korea last year that “there was no gap” between the first two movies, and he’ll want space before “Messiah.”
“I don’t know exactly when I will go back to Arrakis,” Villeneuve said. “I might make a detour before just to go away from the sun. For my mental sanity I might do something in bet
“Dune: Part Two” opens in theaters March 1 from Warner Bros.
During a cast interview with Fandango, posted online Friday, the Euphoria actress revealed she would “of course” reprise her role of Chani in a potential Dune Messiah film.
“Would we be down? I mean of course,” Zendaya said. “Anytime Denis calls it’s a yes from me, at least. I’m excited to see what happens. I started Messiah and I was like, ‘Woah, I’m only shooting the first movie. Let me just go back to the first one.’ It’s so much to take in, and I think there’s no better hands with better care and love for it than him [Villeneuve].”
Dune: Part Two, which also stars Timothée Chalamet, Florence Pugh, Austin Butler, Josh Brolin and Rebecca Ferguson, is set to hit theaters on March 1. As for the future of the movie franchise, Zendaya added that she’s “just excited to see … It’s just anticipation.”
She continued, “Whenever he is ready. I know he’s a perfectionist in many ways and doesn’t want to share things unless he’s fully ready to do that. So [I’m] respecting that and waiting until he’s ready.”
While a third film hasn’t been confirmed, Villeneuve told Empire magazine last year that he’s very interested in creating a third movie based on Frank Herbert’s Dune Messiah, the second book in his Dune series.
“If I succeed in making a trilogy, that would be the dream,” the director said at the time. “I will say, there are words on paper [for a third film].”
Dune, released in 2021, grossed more than $402 million at the worldwide box office. It also won six Oscars, including best achievement in film editing and best original score.
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