Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures are going back to Arrakis to finish out director Denis Villeneuve’s ambitious revisal of the sci-fi classic saga, Dune, affirming fans with an October 2023 release date. The studio made the announcement via social media on Tuesday further citing statements from the director:
“I just received news from Legendary that we are officially moving forward with Dune: Part Two,” Villeneuve said in a statement. “It was a dream of mine to adapt Frank Herbert’s Dune and I have the fans, the cast, and crew, Legendary and Warner Bros. to thank for supporting this dream. This is only the beginning.”
Denis Villeneuve, THR
Based on Frank Herbert’s seminal 1965 novel and upscaling from David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation, Villeneuve’s Dune: Part One is set in the year 10,191 and centers on Paul, the young potentate of a powerful family among an alliance of intergalactic houses of leadership from several planets. The son of a human bloodline and a Bene Gesserit witch, Paul is forced to reckon with the prospects of two possible destinies just as he and his family are swept into political and deadly upheaval, at the hands of an antagonistic ruler who wishes to attain control of the very fiefdom that holds the key to Paul’s future, and effectively, the galaxy.
I’m actually pleased with this news. Aside of the worry from the pandemic and its effect on box office earnings, I’m very much keen on seeing a continuation of Villeneuve’s adaptation. For the past maybe two or three years I actually tried to watch Lynch’s film and never really managed to survive it all in one sitting. Point in fact, everytime I tried watching it, it always put me to sleep without fail, and I put this on the fact that the film tries way too hard to do way too much too early on in terms of exposition and introduction, without really doing anything to place the viewer into the film and inspire sympathy for the protagonist.
This, to me, sits as the difference compared to Villeneuve’s Part One incarnation, which actually takes the more confined and concrete route and centralizes the story solely into the hero’s journey, so that the viewer doesn’t feel so saturated by the story and overall millieu. Granted, both Lynch’s film and Villeneuve’s are very long with the latter at just over 2.5 hours, but there’s no question that you get more longevity and entertainment from the latest film compared to Dune 1984, which bodes more as drab, droll and pretentious in its otherwise noble efforts to weave new cinematic sci-fi tapestry for its time.
Dune: Part One, which stars Timothee Chalamet, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Dave Bautista, Javier Bardem and Chang Chen among others, opened initially on October 22 in theaters and on HBO Max in the states following screenings in Venice and during international rollouts last month. As of this article, box office earnings stand at $223.2 million globally.
Check out the Instagram post below.