Dune director Denis Villeneuve is ready to begin shooting the sequel as soon as next year, assuming Warner Bros. gives it a green light.
IGN attended a roundtable interview where Villeneuve talked about his plans for the future of the franchise, including when he could plausibly start production on a second Dune film. “I would be very ready to go quite quickly. To go quickly in a movie of that size, you still need to make sets, costumes, so we are talking about months,” Villeneuve said. “But if ever there’s enthusiasm and the movie is greenlit sooner than later, I will say that I will be ready to shoot in 2022 for sure.”
Villeneuve’s Dune adapts the first half of Frank Herbert’s landmark 1965 sci-fi novel of the same name and will premiere day and date in theaters and on HBO Max this fall after seeing its release date change a handful of times over the past year due to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Dune co-writer Eric Roth revealed he’d already penned the treatment for a sequel based on the back half of Herbert’s book earlier this year, with Villeneuve later confirming he’s well into writing its script.
However, as excited as he is about making the sequel, Villeneuve emphasized that “quality will be the priority” during the roundtable interview. “I will say, listen, the tough task here was to introduce you guys to the world, the audience to this world, to the codes, to the culture, the different families, the different planets [during the first movie],” he added. “Once this is done, it becomes an insane playground. It will allow me to go berserk.”
Dune made its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival on Sept. 3 and holds an 86 percent “Fresh” score among critics after its first 35 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, with the average review rating sitting at 8.1/10. Its critics consensus reads: “Dune occasionally struggles with its unwieldy source material, but those issues are largely overshadowed by the scope and ambition of this visually thrilling adaptation.”
Ultimately, the odds of Villeneuve getting to adapt the second half of Herbert’s novel will depend on that early word of mouth leading to a strong performance at the box office, combined with Dune‘s viewership on HBO Max when it begins streaming on Oct. 22. Expect more updates on that front in the coming weeks.
Source: IGN
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