We’re still a little over two months out from Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” hitting cinemas and HBO Max on October 22nd, but the film’s star Jason Momoa is already hoping for more.
As we know, the new film is the first part of an intended two-part adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel. Speaking with The New York Times recently, the actor says he hopes Warner Bros. Pictures will release a much longer cut of the film, one allowing Villeneuve to show a fuller work more akin to an event series:
“It was a cool movie. You know what they need to do? They need to make the four-to-six hour version of the first half. It’s like, ‘Let’s watch the four-to-five-hour movie like a TV show; I can choose when I want to watch the whole thing.’ I want to see Denis’s whole vision. I don’t want it to be trimmed.”
The quote has raised the question as to how much footage was cut from the “Dune” assembly cut to its theatrical cut. It wouldn’t be out of character though, editor Joe Walker says Villeneuve’s original cut of “Blade Runner 2049” clocked in at four hours.
The inability to split that is, in part, one of the reasons Villeneuve reportedly only agreed to direct “Dune” if the studio agreed to let him split the work into two features. Expect more information about the film’s cuts to likely emerge closer to release.
“Dune” is set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival next month and opens October 22nd in theaters and on HBO Max.
