Having journeyed across the multiverse to direct a motion picture in the realm of Blade Runner, Denis Villeneuve, the man behind another piece of sci-fi brilliance, Arrival, has now been awarded creative control over science fiction staple Dune.
Aside from the French-Canadian filmmaker providing us with an update in May, though, information regarding his adaptation of the Frank Herbert novel of the same name has been hard to come by and as such, has had the fandom a little bit worried. Thankfully, then, earlier this month, the project took a giant leap forward when Legendary Entertainment announced they were targeting Academy Award nominee Timothée Chalamet for the lead role. And now, Cinema Blend has brought news straight from the horse’s mouth.
Brian Herbert, son of Frank Herbert and New York Times bestselling author, took to Twitter recently and informed both followers and fans that he’d just received the fourth draft of the Dune screenplay from the studio. And according to him, the script “is for the first movie” – confirming it’ll be split in two – and “will cover approximately half of the novel.”
Since Villeneuve has made his desire to split the Frank Herbert story into two common knowledge, this tweet isn’t exactly a revelation, but again, it does serve as confirmation that we will indeed be getting not one, but two Dune movies, which is certainly exciting.
Although, I’d like to point out that splitting stories into multiple parts is undoubtedly a risky undertaking. Granted, it’s worked out in the past – think Kill Bill and, most recently, It. On the other hand, though, taking into account adaptations like The Hobbit, success is definitely not guaranteed.
Still, given the reputation of Villeneuve, I can’t help but think Dune will be both a critical and box office smash when it finally materializes.