Denis Villenueve must have been thrilled when Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures confirmed that Dune: Part Two had been given an official green light, with the filmmaker voicing his concerns on numerous occasions that the sequel wasn’t guaranteed unless the opening chapter performed in line with expectations at the box office.
By the time the dust settles on the weekend’s numbers, the adaptation of Frank Herbert’s seminal novel will be within touching distance of $350 million globally, a fantastic return for a pandemic-era title that scored a simultaneous streaming release and runs for a butt-numbing 156 minutes, especially one that favors dialogue and character over action and spectacle.
Part Two is coming to theaters in October 2023, and Villenueve confirmed at a DGA screening and Q&A event in Los Angeles via World of Reel that the first day of principal photography will be July 18, 2022. Fifteen months should be plenty of time to hammer the project into shape, with shooting likely to account for four or five of them, looking at the schedule for Part One.
Villenueve has already promised bigger and better things to come in Dune: Part Two, which comes with increased expectations after its predecessor set the bar very high, going down as the perhaps the year’s single most acclaimed big budget studio effort.