Denis Villeneuve on Filming “Dune: Part Three” as a “More Tense, More Muscular” IMAX Film
Director Denis Villeneuve is warning fans to brace themselves for something new and “intense” with Dune: Part Three.
“It’s a very different movie from the first ones,” he explained to an audience of select journalists in Los Angeles at an event to premiere the first trailer for the final film in his trilogy. Revealing that it has “a different tone, a different rhythm, and a different pace,” he continued, “The first movie was more a contemplation, the second one was a war movie, and this one is more action-packed, more tense, and more muscular.”
In the epic sci-fi drama Dune: Part Two, which earned Villeneuve three of his four Oscar nominations, Timothée Chalamet’s warrior prince Paul Atreides joined the Fremen people to help them fight for their freedom from the Harkonnen empire, only to be drawn into a holy war with the Great Houses. Based on Frank Herbert’s novel “Dune Messiah” and set seventeen years later, Dune: Part Three sees Chalamet return as transformed Atreides.
“We see Paul dealing with the consequences of having too much power, him trying to figure out how to get out of this cycle of violence, and we follow people trying to overcome him,” the filmmaker revealed. However, he promised that the film’s heartbeat remains the relationship between Paul and Chani, played by Zendaya.
Also returning for the third film are Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica, Anya Taylor-Joy as Alia Atreides, Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan, Javier Bardem as Stilgar, and Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho. Robert Pattinson joins the ensemble as master shapeshifter Scytale. As well as the returning cast, legendary composer Hans Zimmer will once again provide the score, which, like the film, Villeneuve warns fans will be tonally very different.
Villeneuve confirmed that many things have changed during the almost two decades between the events of Dune: Part Two and Dune: Part Three, including the climate on Arrakis, perhaps the most significant location in Herbert’s Dune-iverse. “It’s still a desert planet, but there are differences. We are visiting new sets and new places,” the filmmaker enthused. “I brought the camera into areas of the planet that you have not seen before, and we are visiting new planets as well. I wanted to approach this with a new pair of eyes.”
The process involved replacing his cinematographer on the first two films, Greig Fraser, who is also known for The Batman, with Saltburn‘s Linus Sandgren. “We decided to shoot most of the movie on film in 70mm, which I haven’t done in years,” Villeneuve recalled. “A big part of it was shot in IMAX film, which was the first time for me, but I kept the desert in digital because I like the brutality of the digital IMAX.” Describing the IMAX cameras as “epic” and “the best cameras in the world. When you see the result on screen, it’s quite unmatchable. It was a unique experience for me, and I hope I will have the chance to do it again.”
The acclaimed auteur, who once again co-wrote the film with Jon Spaihts, told the handpicked crowd that Dune: Part Three needed to be seen “on the biggest screen possible” to get the full IMAX experience.
“It is the most immersive format,” he enthused. “Cinema is an art form that is meant to make you travel and experience things that you would not in regular life. At the end of the day, I think, as human beings, it’s important to share experiences. In our lives right now, we are in our bubbles all around the world, and I think that [movie] theaters, like some sports events or concerts, bring us together, and there’s something beautiful and human about that. It’s very important.”
Also debuting as part of the trailer premiere event were a series of character posters that give audiences an idea of how the cast have been aged to match the film’s timeline, something that was easy in his head but “more tricky” to do with real actors. Working with Heike Merker, whom Villeneuve described as “one of the best makeup artists in the world,” the pair tried to achieve their vision as subtly as possible.
One of the most striking looks belongs to Pattinson’s Scytale. While the character is often described as villainous, the actor, who, along with Zendaya, Taylor-Joy, and Bardem, made a surprise appearance at the event, was not so quick to judge.
“He’s an unusual character in the book. You can’t really tell whose side he’s on, which is what makes him quite interesting,” he mused. “He’s not a conventional bad guy. He might even be a good guy. Who knows? He was an extremely fun character to play, and the look for [him] is extraordinary.” Pattinson also described the Dune films, which he is a fan of, as a “towering achievement.
“When you see the scope and scale and ambition of these movies on set, you get why they feel like this on the screen,” he added. “It’s extraordinary and an amazing experience to have.”
After Dune: Part Two debuted in 2024, Villeneuve, also known for Blade Runner 2049, Arrival, and Prisoners, hadn’t planned to return to the series quite so soon. However, two things happened that changed his mind: the first was the delayed yet overwhelming response to the first film.
“When we released Part One, it was at the end of the pandemic, and I was not really in contact with the audience,” he explained. “When we released Part Two, I received that wave of excitement and love from Part One. We first screened the movie in Mexico, with 14,000 people outside the theater and 5,000 inside, and there was that roller coaster of excitement around the world. I felt an appetite for the third movie that I was not expecting.”
He said that as a filmmaker, when you make a series of movies, you are “in a relationship with the audience,” and he felt a responsibility to finish the story.
“I said to my crew, ‘I’m taking a break,’ and I went back home, but I kept waking up in the middle of the night with those images. I was supposed to do another movie in the meantime, but the images of Dune: Part Three kept coming back, and I said, ‘Alright, let’s do it.'”
That was when he told himself that it was “a good idea” to come back to the world, driven “not by nostalgia, but by urgency, and to go there with a critical eye and not be self-indulgent.”
With Dune: Part Three due to land in movie theaters on December 18, Villeneuve confirmed that he is hard at work in post-production.
“It’s cooking. It’s going well,” the director concluded. “The movie is alive and mostly done in the editing room, but the visual effects in these movies are not small. We are at full speed.”
And with that, Villeneuve and his cast left the stage to cheers, the trailer premiered, and, as promised, he headed back into the editing room.
Featured image: Caption: TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET as Paul Atreides in Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE: PART THREE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures
