Legendary Entertainment has been making a habit lately of snatching up Marvel actors for the upcoming Dune remake. Following on the heels of Monday’s news that Dave Bautista of Guardians of the Galaxy fame had landed the role of “Beast” Rabban, The Wrap reports that Stellan Skarsgård of Thor and The Avengers – not to mention everything from Nymphomaniac to Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again – has joined the cast of Denis Villeneuve’s next film.
Skarsgård and Bautista will be starring opposite the likes of Timothée Chalamet and Rebecca Ferguson in what’s planned to be the first of at least two movies based on the popular Frank Herbert novel. Though there’ve been multiple attempts already to bring the sci-fi saga to the big screen (one of which was even the subject of the acclaimed 2013 documentary Jodorowsky’s Dune), the only successful attempt remains the divisive 1984 version directed by David Lynch, which proved a box office bomb but has since amassed a cult following.
For this latest adaptation, Legendary acquired the film and television rights to Dune back in November 2016, with Villeneuve officially signing on in February 2017. The Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 helmsman has since stated his plans for the film to be “Star Wars for adults,” while observing how the influence of Herbert’s novel on the Lucasfilm space saga renders it all the more challenging to translate this fifty-three-year-old story into a movie that feels fresh to modern day filmgoers.
In any case, though a release date has yet to be announced, it currently feels like things are finally coming into place for Villeneuve’s Dune, and we can hopefully expect plenty more news in the coming months.