Denis Villeneuve managed to make Dune an Oscar-nominated hit which managed to overcome the tremendous hurdles of the pandemic and a weak theatre industry going against its 2021 release – but now he says Dune: Part Two will be even harder.
It’s gonna be intense. I’m in prep right now. Monday morning, as soon as we leave Los Angeles, it will be to start to go on with prep. I cannot say nothing about the movie – I don’t like to talk about projects as I am doing them – but it’s probably going to be the biggest challenge of my career, again, because it’s even more complex than Part One.
The Prisoners filmmaker made the comments about his release slated for 2023 in an interview with Entertainment Tonight Canada published yesterday. The director also said he was proud of his team and hoped the work will end up taking home some hardware when the Academy Awards airs tomorrow.
I’m very proud for my crew. For now, we just cross fingers. I’m not expecting to do a speech. I’m expecting to applaud some of my colleagues, that’s what I’ll do.
Hopefully the sequel does well and Zendaya gets more screen time as Villeneuve has promised. Aside from her confirmed return, we noted earlier this month Deadline Hollywood reported Elvis star Austin Butler is under consideration to play Feyd-Rautha in the sequel. This villainous character was previously played by Sting in David Lynch’s film.
The sequel is set to release in October 2023, but you can watch the first part of Villeneuve’s sci-fi/fantasy epic on HBO Max now.