Denis Villeneuve Writing Script For “Dune 2” & Zendaya Will Star
Writer/director Denis Villeneuve’s Dune might not have even hit theaters yet, but that hasn’t stopped him from getting to work on the sequel. Villeneuve’s long-awaited adaptation of Frank. Herbert’s colossal, best-selling sci-fi novel is slated to finally bow this October, after making its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival next month. (Not for nothing, fellow filmmaker and Venice juror Chloé Zhao has already seen it and was blown away.) Villeneuve has long made it clear that he had no intention of trying to capture the immensity of Herbert’s vision in a single film, so, despite Dune being delayed due to the pandemic, and Warner Bros. having not yet officially green-lit the sequel, he’s working on the script.
In an interview with GamesRadar, Villeneuve said he’s optimistic that the sequel will go into production. What’s more, he’s having a blast. “I’m writing [Part Two] now, and I feel like I’m eight years old again. That’s very uncommon for me. It’s the first time I’ve experienced it where I’m watching one of my movies, and I have a moment of deep gratitude, of deep joy, and I say, ‘Thank you, life, for having allowed me to bring that to the screen.’ [laughs] I don’t know how other people will feel about it. But me? Denis Villeneuve when he was 14 years old? Thank you.”
As has recently been reported, Zendaya’s character Chani will be the center of the sequel, taking over the story’s focus from Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides. Chalamet is set to return for the sequel in some capacity, but obviously all plot points will be jealously guarded. Considering Villeneuve has been planning on a two-part Dune this entire time and the reactions to part one, not only from Chloé Zhao but Warner Bros. executives, have been overwhelmingly positive, he’s confident it will happen.
“Everybody at Warner Bros and Legendary, they are 100 percent behind the project,” he told GamesRadar. “They feel that it would need a really bad outcome at the box office to not have a Dune: Part Two, because they love the movie. They are proud of the movie, so they want the movie to move forward. And they still did half of it.”
We’ll see the first half of his vision soon—Dune is slated to hit theaters and HBO Max on October 22.
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Featured image: Caption: (L-r) ZENDAYA as Chani and TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET as Paul Atreides in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures
