Between Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Trek and James Cameron’s long-brewing Avatar universe, Zoe Saldana’s slate is currently packed to the rafters. Since her back-to-back appearances in J.J. Abrams’ franchise reboot and the first Avatar movie in 2009, the actress has also become one of Hollywood’s bankable stars in the realm of science fiction, and Saldana currently has one eye trained on another genre pic incubating in development: Dune.
Of course, Frank Herbert’s seminal novel saga has been adapted before; David Lynch famously molded an imperfect space opera in 1984, before a three-part miniseries bowed via Syfy almost two decades later. But soon after Legendary struck a deal to land the IP’s film and TV rights in 2016, a Dune reboot suddenly became a very real, and very exciting prospect. Fast forward to now and with Arrival and Blade Runner 2049‘s Denis Villeneuve at the helm, there’s already a hushed excitement swirling around the project.
Villeneuve remains tied up in the Blade Runner universe, so barring the appointment of Oscar-winning scribe Eric Roth, there’s nary a mention of casting. That hasn’t stopped fans from dreaming up wish lists of their own though and, after appearing in so many sci-fi projects in the past ten years, Zoe Saldana has trained her sights on Dune.
Chatting at the recent Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 press day (via Screen Rant), the actress was asked to cherry-pick another sci-fi property to add to the collection, to which she replied:
Dune. I was Lady Jessica, and when I wasn’t a Bene Gesserit I was a ninja. So I would love to be in Dune. I’ve heard that Denis Villeneuve is thinking… he’s revisiting, and um, I hope he decides to do it because I’m one of those people that, I think David Lynch did a great job, but I was six when I saw Dune, so… so it would be Dune.
Will Legendary take heed of Saldana’s wishes? The studio is yet to map out a production timeline for Dune, so it’s far too soon to tell. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, meanwhile, begins its theatrical run on April 28th when James Gunn’s spacefaring adventure opens in the UK. Expect it to grace North America on May 5th.
