Denis Villeneuve Aimed forDuneto Be Approachable, Even If You Didn’t Read the Books

There ’s avery sound reason why Dune , one of the most influential sci - fi books of all time , hasnever had a peachy version . fundamentally , it ’s just a lot . The report is set across multiple planets ; follows several home , sect , andbelief systems ; and is less about action mechanism than it is about view — diplomacy or slyness is favored over brute strength and ferocity . When filmmaker Denis Villeneuve sat down toadapt Frank Herbert ’s classicfor the twenty-first century , he know he had several challenges , but making it approachable to a large hearing — so thefilm would make money — was the biggest one of all .

“ I am a massive fan of the Dune books . It ’s a rule book that stay with me over 35 long time and it ’s a volume that I deeply know , ” Villeneuve tell io9 and a group of journalists last month . “ So you go into the adaptation , you realize that the end was to make a movie that will please the hard-core fans , the people that know Dune by heart , and also my mother that never read Dune … So to incur that equilibrium was not easy . ”

The mode toward that counterbalance was to come near Dune from the consultation ’s perspective . “ I had to [ figure out ] how to introduce this world without being too much didactic that it becomes like a lesson , that it becomes almost like the preparation for the audience , ” Villeneuve said . “ So that ’s where we had to find ways that we feel respectful to the book , but kind of a little flake different . So it ’s all about choices and sometimes tough decisions . ”

Timothée Chalamet and Charlotte Rampling in Dune.

Timothée Chalamet and Charlotte Rampling in Dune.Image: Warner Bros.

Those choices and baffling decision are numerous , from splitting the playscript into two parts with the hope and supplicant hegets to make the restin the near future , to focus his version of this report on two specific characters . “ The means , first of all , that the focus was [ ground ] was I say to my partner screenwriters that we need to focus on Paul , Paul , Paul , ” Villeneuve state . “ As you know , Dune has been written that you visit the different planets and all those families . But for the picture show , I said we will mostly sharpen on Paul Attrides . I want the movie to be as immersive as potential and to be in the boy ’s stage of panorama . ”

Paul — play byTimothée Chalamet — has always been the main character but his arc is only part of the news report . The first section of Herbert ’s book pass significant clip with his father , Duke Leto ( Oscar Isaac ) ; his loyal soldier like Duncan Idaho and Gurney Halleck ( Jason Momoa , Josh Brolin ) ; the evil Harkonnens ( played byStellan Skarsgård , Dave Bautista , and others ) ; and many more . This is all while the Attrides family go from the plush planet Caladan to the dry planet Arrakis , where an abundant source of the galaxy ’s most valuable resourcefulness , spicery , exists .

For a good glob of the report , Paul takes that journey with his female parent , Lady Jessica ( Rebecca Ferguson ) , a fellow member of theBene Gesserit . It ’s a group of almost superpowered women who basically control the galaxy from behind the scenes . So if you ’re perish to focalise on Paul , and his future , the other affair Villeneuve realized he had to do was pore on Jessica . “ I pronounce to [ co - screenwriter ] Eric Roth — who had the task to go after the beast at the beginning — Eric ask me ‘ What would be the most important chemical element ? What would be the matter you would care to focus on as I adapt ? ’ And I said to him , ‘ Women , ’ ” the director sound out . “ I guess that in Dune women are very crucial . I opine they were very important for Frank Herbert . And I remember that the Bene Gesserit should be upfront . I would love Lady Jessica to be not the main protagonist , but just behind . So it was very important that the movie would be focused on Paul and the relationship with his mother and that lead to [ building ] up Lady Jessica as much as possible . ”

Denis Villeneuve and his Paul, Timothée Chalamet.

Denis Villeneuve and his Paul, Timothée Chalamet.Image: Warner Bros.

sharpen the chief level on a male child and his mother immediately makes a picture about huge , otherworldly ideas more accessible . Over the course of production , Villeneuve was able to hone his ideas more and more so that he had just the correct symmetry of digestible floor and Dune uniqueness . “ Again , [ that symmetry ] is not something that was done in five day , ” he tell . “ It … evolve as we wrote the cinema . As I shot and edit , it ’s something that develop like a carving will develop . And for me , it was a very fascinating filmmaking process that I really savour , to have that space to research to make certain that I would find the proper way of life to tell that account . But it was not a path I found very cursorily . ”

Even after all of that , no matter if non - fans feel the story is accessible or fans cerebrate it ’s close enough to the original , it ’s crucial to commemorate this is only half the story . hoi polloi who want more Freman life , Harkonnen scheme , and sandworm horseback riding , will , hopefully , still have that probability . “ The beauty of make the picture in two portion , that was a decision I made right at the beginning as well , is that there are some elements that I did n’t explore in this first part that I will have a luck to explore in a second part , ” Villenuve said . “ Dune [ has ] all its office into contingent . ”

Dune : Part One open up in theaters , and on HBO Max , October 22 .

Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) in Dune.