Filmmaker Denis Villeneuve has hinted that his post-“Dune: Part Two” holiday is over and he’s going to get back to work on the third instalment in the franchise quicker than expected.
Speaking with Deadline, he says these movies “take a lot of time to be made, so it’s best not to say out loud when I might shoot” but then goes on to explain he’s had the break he needed and wants to get back to work:
“Let’s say that I thought that after Part Two that I will take a break, that I will go back in the woods and stay in the woods for a while to recover. But the woods weren’t really suiting me, and I would go back behind the camera faster than I think. But that’s all I can say.”
He adds that he’s “in the writing zone right now.” The filmmaker won’t be calling it “Dune: Part Three,” insisting the first two are “for me like one entity. It’s a movie made in two parts. It’s finished, it’s done.”
He could’ve stopped there, but in adapting the much shorter “Dune: Messiah,” he sees the chance to shake things up:
“Like Herbert did with Dune: Messiah, I think it’ll be a great idea to do something completely different. The story takes place like twelve years after where we left the characters at the end of Part Two. Their journey, their story is different this time, and that’s why I always say that while it’s the same world it’s a new film with new circumstances.”
The new film “will finish the Paul Atreides arc” he says, and will end Villeneuve’s association with the Dune universe. It also requires four key talents to return – Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides, Zendaya as Chani, Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan and Anya Taylor-Joy as an adult Alia Atreides.
