Last year, Denis Villeneuve journeyed across the multiverse to helm a motion picture in the realm of Blade Runner. The Ridley Scott and Philip K. Dick firmament was handled with reverence and ingenuity by the French-Canadian filmmaker, and as a result, Villeneuve was given creative control over another science fiction staple, Dune.
The status of the project, however, has been up in the air since early 2017, when it was announced that Academy Award winner Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) had come aboard to pen the screenplay. Fortunately, the director of Arrival recently discussed the Legendary production in an interview at Cannes, confirming that Roth has indeed finished the script and that he’s (Villeneuve) hard at work on the first Dune installment.
“Eric Roth wrote the first draft, and I worked on my side afterward. I have not had such fun on the creative side since Incendies! My wish would have been to make both films at the same time, but it will be too expensive. We will do them one at a time. ”
Set in the distant future in which noble houses, in control of individual planets, owe allegiance to the Padishah Emperor, Dune tells the story of young Paul Atreides, played by Kyle MacLachlan in David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation, whose family accepts the stewardship of the planet Arrakis, the only known source of the most valuable substance in the universe, oracular spice melange.
An adaptation of the Frank Herbert novel of the same name, it’s been known for, at least a couple of months now, that Villeneuve plans to turn the Dune source material into a pair of motion pictures. Although we won’t be getting both volumes simultaneously, which the Sicario director confirmed via his “it will be too expensive” remark, it does sound like he’s having a blast helming the reboot, and that can only be good news for antsy fans.
