(Los Angeles) Denis Villeneuve does not feel like he has returned to the desert planet Arrakis for the second part of Dune. In his mind, he never left her side.
Following Dunewhich hits North American theaters on March 1er March, constitutes the culmination of a cinematographic journey of six years, but preceded by 40 years of an intense desire to rub shoulders with the work of fiction. And it’s a “duneesque” chapter that Christopher Nolan has already compared to The Empire Strikes Back.
Transposing Frank Herbert’s saga for the big screen is a feat that has baffled and defeated some of the greatest, including David Lean, Alejandro Jodorowsky and David Lynch – the only one who was actually able to make a film out of it. But its 1984 production was such a fiasco that the two planned sequels were quickly abandoned.
Denis Villeneuve finally got his chance, but during one of the most troubled times in Hollywood history — two delayed releases (one because of the pandemic, the other because of strikes), the appearance of streaming and no guarantee that there would be a “part two”.
PHOTO MARCO UGARTE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
From left to right: Denis Villeneuve, Florence Pugh, Zendaya, Timothée Chalamet, Josh Brolin and Austin Butler pose during a promotional event in Mexico City on February 6.
“The conditions could not have been worse for the release of the first part,” admitted the Quebec director in a recent interview with the Associated Press. “And yet the film made decent revenues. »
Even during an initial period of hesitation and uncertainty about what would happen next, Villeneuve never stopped working on the script for a second part, knowing that if he got the green light, he wanted to be ready to s put it there quickly.
At the time when his director of photography Greig Fraser won the Oscar for Dune, the two creators were already in full pre-production for the sequel. And soon everyone was back in Budapest, in July, for filming. But even though they had conquered the desert in “Part One,” new challenges awaited them.
“At the beginning, we all went into this project feeling confident,” Villeneuve said. And that trust quickly eroded. » It’s that Dune: Part Two will have been much more difficult to shoot, technically, with at least seven major action sequences, compared to two in the first part.
More action than in the first
The plot picks up with Paul Atréides (Timothée Chalamet) following a calculated and devastating attack by a rival house on his family and followers, who had just taken control of the mineral-rich desert planet Arrakis. With his father dead, Paul and his mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) retreat to the desert, where they enter into a tenuous alliance with the Arrakis natives known as the “Fremen” (including actress Zendaya). Paul trains to fight alongside them against the Harkonnen invaders.
Among Villeneuve’s challenges: filming Chalamet “surfing” on a sandworm in an exciting way, without appearing ridiculous. The director had to figure out how to translate what he had imagined into words that would make sense to all the artisans who worked to achieve it, under the blazing sun.
But none of these stresses seem to have disturbed the atmosphere on the plateaus of the Jordanian Wadi Rum valley, Budapest or Abu Dhabi. In fact, according to Chalamet, it was quite the opposite: Villeneuve really seemed to be having fun.
“Denis is such a player. For me, this is the greatest proof of self-confidence,” said the young actor. “It’s ultimately a fun and creative exercise to be able to make a film. Anyone who takes himself too seriously is more focused on the people around him, on the public, than on the product itself, which will reek of pretension. »
PHOTO NIKO TAVERNISE, WARNER BROS. PICTURES VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
Timothée Chalamet and Denis Villeneuve on the set of Dune: Part Two
Josh Brolin, who has now worked with Villeneuve on three films, after Sicario and both Dunewhere he plays Atreides warrior Gurney Halleck, said that it takes a unique personality to be a great filmmaker, and that Villeneuve is of that caliber, along with the Coen brothers, in his ability to do things well.
“The great filmmakers with whom I have had the chance to work are marginal ones. They are real outsiders. They’re not cool people. They are totally socially maladjusted, Brolin said. And they found this medium to be able to work, [où] they can express themselves in wild and specific ways. And what is going on in their heads that we have never been privy to? Now we can experience it. »
Postponed outings
Denis Villeneuve has almost gotten used to delayed releases — and each time his films have benefited from them. The first of Dune was postponed for almost a year because of the pandemic, which allowed him to refine his film. This time he had to do something different: make a film transfer so that it could be shown in IMAX 70mm and 70mm formats, even though it was shot digitally. “It’s the ultimate visual experience and the ultimate format,” believes Villeneuve.
Dune: Part Two, which cost 122 million US dollars to produce, arrives in theaters at the right time. The market is a little clearer than usual due to the residual impacts of the Hollywood strikes last year, and it’s also a cinema ecosystem in which superheroes are no longer the loyal “mainstays” they once were .
But Dune represents a completely different type of “franchise”. The first grossed just over 400 million, even though it was simultaneously released in theaters and on the digital platform Max (at the time HBOMax).
PHOTO NIKO TAVERNISE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya in a scene from Dune: Part Two
And Villeneuve has even more hope this time. After all, the public’s appetite for the big screen is stronger than it was at the end of 2021, coming out of the pandemic. He also believes that the second part is both more entertaining and can be enjoyed without having seen the first.
“The first part was more meditative,” he admits. We followed a boy who was discovering a culture. Now we are with the boy who avenges his father and falls in love. And it’s more of an action film. »
Villeneuve knows that the second part “has a soul” too, but he’s not quite ready to step back and enjoy it like the 13-year-old boy who once dreamed of it.
The Quebec director also leaves the door open for the future. Frank Herbert continued to write books, after all. But for now, he’ll step back and let Dune breathe a little. He views his films from a macro perspective, in a way that could ensure the future of the medium he loves so much.
“What I tried to do with my last three films [Dune, Blade Runner 2049 et Arrival], is to highlight this idea of a large-scale cinema event. I think that’s how films will survive. »