Denis Villeneuve on Making ‘Dune 2’ and ‘Messiah’

Most of what I cowl right here on ScreenCrush are blockbusters. These are the films with the largest budgets in historical past. And but recently, I discover that an increasing number of of them look downright dangerous.

I don’t know in the event that they’re made by administrators missing in imaginative and prescient or hands-on results expertise, or they’re labored on by too many disparate firms to keep up a constant look and tone, or they’re being modified and reworked by studios again and again in order that gifted VFX artists don’t have the time they should do a passable job. Irrespective of why it’s occurring, it’s occurring. And for those who go to the flicks quite a bit, you don’t want me to inform you this. You already know.

One of many few administrators who constantly bucks that pattern is Denis Villeneuve. Whereas the Canadian filmmaker bought his begin in smaller scale dramas, he’s now made 4 stunningly stunning science-fiction movies in a row: Arrival, Blade Runner 2049, Dune, and Dune: Half Two. Villeneuve doesn’t simply craft tales with compelling characters — though he completely does that too — he manages to create attractive, completely plausible worlds round these characters.

In Dune: Half Two, that’s the planet Arrakis, with its magnificent deserts and ginormous sandworms, the place the conclusion of Frank Herbert’s epic story of a future warfare for sources performs out. After setting the stage in 2021’s Dune, Half Two continues the story of younger Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), who should resolve whether or not to embrace his supposed future because the chief of Arrakis’ native Fremen. Doing so might give him the revenge he craves towards the forces who killed his father and household. It might additionally price him his personal identification and the lives of many tens of millions of individuals across the galaxy.

After I bought the prospect to speak to Villeneuve, I actually wished to begin with Half Two’s superb photos: Why do his films look so a lot better than so many others of comparable scale? He gave me a solution — and he additionally informed me whether or not he considers Dune a single movie divided in two elements or two separate films, and if he does need to adapt Frank Herbert’s Dune Messiah into a 3rd Dune movie, as has been reported elsewhere.

Plus, Villeneuve informed me his favourite a part of Herbert’s Dune that he hated having to chop from the flicks, how Dune may need turned out otherwise if he’d shot the entire novel without delay as an alternative of as two completely different productions, and the easiest way he recommends to expertise Dune: Half Two. 

It was an excellent dialog. I hope we get to have an element two in some unspecified time in the future sooner or later.

ScreenCrush: Should you needed to put a quantity on it proper after you completed Half One, what would you might have mentioned at that time the percentages of Dune: Half Two occurring have been?

Denis Villeneuve: Frankly, I knew Legendary have been happy with the movie. They have been very enthusiastic in regards to the first film. They have been able to go to warfare to make the second.

We didn’t know on the time what the end result could be on the field workplace. It was a troublesome time. We have been towards Covid. We have been towards a day and date launch in the USA. It was actually a troublesome surroundings to deliver a film to the world. However I knew Legendary have been actually keen about making a second one. So let’s say that when they noticed the completed film, the probabilities I used to be going again to Arrakis have been excessive.

It might have wanted to be a actual catastrophe to tug the plug. They have been fairly keen about this and so they have been able to persuade all people about that.

Proper. So that you make Half One, you launch Half One, you then return and make Half Two. If circumstances had been completely different and also you had been capable of shoot the entire story, each movies, on the similar time — even for those who have been nonetheless releasing them as two elements — how do you assume the flicks would have turned out otherwise?

Perhaps I’d be useless?

[laughs]

The factor is that was my thought, by the best way. I wished to make each films collectively! I believed that was proper. However it might have been completely exhausting bodily, as a result of each films required a really lengthy shoot in very troublesome circumstances. Even extra for Half Two, which we spent rather more time within the desert.

So I’ll say that I’m grateful we did it this fashion, frankly. I believe that I used to be protected by the gods of cinema, as a result of it allowed me to get better and to be taught from all the things I discovered technically on Half One, which gave me clues tips on how to enhance and make a greater film with Half Two. And that was doable due to the best way we did it.

READ MORE: Our Full (Spoiler-Free) Overview of Dune: Half Two

You talked about that you simply have been working extra within the desert on this movie. I’ve to confess, watching Half Two, this stunning desert, every now and then I’d assume “How the hell do they preserve all that sand wanting so pristine?” How exhausting is it to maintain footprints off digital camera? It looks as if it might be a nightmare.

It is a nightmare. It’s humorous — it’s not humorous, however I bear in mind [Dune cinematographer] Greig Fraser and I going “Oh no, not once more!”

We’ve got to instill quite a lot of self-discipline in our movie crew. We’ve got to make very tight corridors and attempt to defend our sand. That set that we select, the sand dunes which can be chosen … we seem like fools! Loopy individuals wandering within the desert, choosing out particular sand dunes. Why? As a result of they’ve a sure form that I need, or they’ve the right solar orientation that Greig wants.

So these sand dunes change into very treasured for us, and guarded by a complete workforce. It requires quite a lot of self-discipline, as a result of when you break one, it’s accomplished. So, yeah, it’s like a puzzle.

There’s a complete sand workforce?

There’s a sand workforce. It’s one of the odd issues I’ve seen in my life. If you depart the set at sundown, you see dozens of individuals beginning to sweep the desert to assist the wind to erase the footsteps for the following morning. That’s, for me, the oddest sight seen. [laughs] It’s quiet poetic to see individuals sweeping a desert.

A part of my job is seeing just about each big-budget film that comes alongside in theaters. And admittedly, quite a lot of them don’t look that good nowadays! Actually not as actual and as convincing as yours do, and particularly as each Dune films do. I’m curious to listen to about your philosophy and your method to the visible aspect of your job. What’s the secret that quite a lot of these different movies can’t appear to determine?

To start with, I work with superb cinematographers. And we embrace nature and examine nature and pure gentle. And we be sure that we shoot as a lot as doable on digital camera, in order that the VFX might be embedded int the character, and that we aren’t attempting to distort the pure gentle, distort the pure surroundings. We’re attempting to embrace nature as a lot as doable.

That was the primary rule that I dropped at Dune, each films. And naturally I work with masters at visible results. It’s a workforce effort, however everyone seems to be following that line, attempting to deliver a stage of realism.

I used to say that storyboards precede the screenplay. However nature precedes the storyboards. We obey the legal guidelines of nature, and that’s what makes it one of many key parts.

I see. Clearly you did get to make two films; you didn’t must compress all the things from that huge guide right into a single movie. However I do know you may’t squeeze each final little bit of the guide you’re keen on into the movies. Was there one factor that was perhaps the toughest to chop out of your Dune, the place you really liked it from the guide however you realized it was not wanted on display screen?

I used to be in love with Thufir Hawat [played in Dune: Part One by Stephen McKinley Henderson]. It’s a personality that I completely adore. However I needed to make the daring option to make a Bene Gesserit adaptation, and to focus the film on that sisterhood. I want there was extra Thufir Hawat. That’s what I’d say.

I liked the way you began Dune: Half Two with minimal clarification of the primary movie. Had been you ever pressured to incorporate extra of a recap or a montage or one thing that may explicitly lay out all of the stuff that occurred in Half One?

I attempted to make the movie autonomous, so that somebody who hasn’t seen Half One can nonetheless benefit from the film. And we’ve sufficient clues about Half One. Simply sufficient. I attempted to offer the naked minimal, so individuals might embrace the journey.

There’s a little recap at first, however I attempted to maintain it as minimalistic as doable. That was the plan because the screenplay, and it didn’t change.

Do you see Dune as one film or two separate films?

I’ll say, that’s a great query. As a screenwriter, I attempted to inform one story. However as a director, for me, Half Two was a distinct animal. It was one thing rather more muscular, with extra pace and extra motion. And there was one thing extra playful about Half Two. I felt I discovered quite a bit from Half One and it tremendously helped me to boost the bar for Half Two.

What have been a number of the belongings you discovered?

Oh it might be too lengthy and boring to your reads to clarify all of it. It’s about my expertise as a director; tips on how to direct actors, the pace of the mise-en-scène, the inside rhythms of the scenes. I simply felt that I improved as a filmmaker.

And I believe each filmmaker does, by the best way. Each time you make a film, you come out of it and you can’t consider how a lot you be taught. The reality is there are such a lot of parts that it’s a must to grasp if you do the film. You’re confronted to your limits. If you end a film, you say “Okay, that I succeeded at. This, I failed. Okay, I failed there too.” So the following time, you attempt to enhance your self.

I believe that’s the great thing about the job, is that you simply be taught a lot. That, in a method, is the primary motor, the primary intention: To attempt to do a greater film, to at all times attempt to enhance your self as a filmmaker.

One factor I hear from readers when a film like a Dune comes out is “How ought to I see it? Ought to I pay for IMAX? If I can see it in 70mm, is that the best way to go?” In any best world, if somebody can see Dune: Half Two any method they’d like, how would you advocate they see it?

A very powerful factor, to start with, is that irrespective of the way you see it, you see it in a theater. That’s the a method you may have the complete energy of the panorama and the immersive feeling; the best way the sound is designed. The one method you may embrace that and obtain the complete energy of the film is in a theater.

I would advocate both IMAX or the [Dolby] Atmos, due to the precision of their immersive programs. The sound was made for Dolby Atmos and IMAX. It was constructed for these programs.

Now, digital and movie, each have their very own qualities. I’ll say, it’s been a very long time since I had movie prints come out. Due to Chris Nolan, who gave me the prospect to do this due to the success of Oppenheimer. There was a pleasure and an pleasure about it. When Warner Bros. requested me what I’d consider doing a movie launch, I used to be moved and excited by the concept.

So as a lot as I labored very exhausting on the digital model to be good, I’ll say that it’s fairly shifting to see the 70mm prints and IMAX prints. They’ve completely different qualities, however each have strengths and benefits.

What a couple of Dune double characteristic? Would you need individuals to see them that method? Is that one thing that could be within the playing cards sooner or later?

There was some launch of Half One in some a part of the world [recently]. I believe it might be cool. First we’ll deliver Half Two to the world. Perhaps later that may be attention-grabbing, to see each films again to again. That may be attention-grabbing for me to do this, and expertise that myself. But it surely’s one thing that may come later.

So after we began speaking, I requested in regards to the odds you’ll have given about making Dune: Half Two after you completed Half One. I’ve learn that you’re focused on making a Dune Messiah film, so I’ll ask the identical query: At this level, after Half Two has come out however earlier than it’s been launched, what are the percentages that you’ll make a 3rd Dune film?

My preliminary intentions have been at all times to make two movies of the primary guide. That took six years of my life. And it’s a blessing. I’m grateful I had the prospect to do this. These films required an incredible period of time and vitality. I’ve different tales that I’d love to inform. I used to be not planning to spend many years on Arrakis.

I believe that it completely is smart to do an adaptation of Dune Messiah. When the screenplay is completed, then we’ll see. For now, the screenplay isn’t completed. And I don’t understand how lengthy it should take to complete it.

I’ve different initiatives. I’m simply out of Half Two. I must current Half Two to the world, digest, sleep a bit, return within the snow, assume and dream a bit to know what’s subsequent. And what might be subsequent would be the first screenplay that’s prepared on my desk. Proper now, none of them are prepared. And that’s a wholesome spot to be in. I can’t soar behind a digital camera straight away. I would like a tiny little bit of time to relaxation earlier than going again to Arrakis.