The leading men of Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming film adaptation of “Dune,” actors Timothee Chalamet and Oscar Isaac, have spoken some more about the sci-fi epic.
“Call Me By Your Name” breakout Chalamet takes on the iconic role of Paul Atreides, the son of Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac) whose powerful family has inherited control of the planet Arrakis – home of the ‘spice melange’ which allows for interstellar travel.
Chalamet tells Empire one of the best things about the film is that Villeneuve chose to do much of the feature practically with a bunch of filming taking place in the Wadi Rum desert located in southern Jordan where “Lawrence of Arabia” was famously shot. It was there the young actor learned a lesson:
“That part of the Wadi Rum is so awe-inspiring, you might as well be getting chased by that cliff in the background. It wasn’t a green-screen or anything. That’s one of the most thrilling parts of the book and the movie. We had the sketches. That was a lesson for me. On a Call Me By Your Name or Beautiful Boy it can be counterintuitive to see the storyboards because then maybe you limit yourself based on a camera angle or whatever. It’s the opposite [here] because, for a sequence with the sandworm chasing you, I could never imagine that.”
Meanwhile also speaking with Empire, Oscar Isaac says the film is quite relevant to modern society and very recent hot topic issues of long-dominated over cultures hitting a ‘enough is enough’ wall:
“It’s about the destiny of a people, and the different way that cultures have dominated other ones. How do a people respond when it’s at the tipping point, when enough is enough, when they’re exploited? All those things are things we’re seeing around the world right now.”
The project also shot in Hungary and Norway. The film also stars Rebecca Ferguson as Paul’s Bene Gesserit mother Lady Jessica, Josh Brolin as sword-master Gurney Halleck, Javier Bardem as tribe leader Stilgar, Zendaya as his right-hand woman Chani, Sharon Duncan-Brewster as her mother Liet-Kynes, and Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho.
The trailer is scheduled to be released online on September 9th and the film is still targeting a December release. Check out some new photos for the film from CBM.
