Denis Villeneuve Says He’d Like To Adapt ‘Dune: Messiah’ as Well
Dune: Part II was announced on Tuesday, but Denis Villeneuve won’t stop there.
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, the Canadian director said that he’s always planned three movies, but it doesn’t depend on him. He said in an interview earlier this year (before Part II was announced):
“I always envisioned three movies. It’s not that I want to do a franchise, but this is Dune, and Dune is a huge story. In order to honor it, I think you would need at least three movies. That would be the dream. To follow Paul Atreides and his full arc would be nice.”
He then added:
“Herbert wrote six books, and the more he was writing, the more it was getting psychedelic. So I don’t know how some of them could be adapted. One thing at a time. If I ever have the chance to do Dune: Part Two and Dune Messiah, I’m blessed.”
Paul Atreides’ arc runs through the first two books, Dune and Dune: Messiah. The other four novels by Frank Herbert get weirder and weirder as they go, and it’s understandable why Villeneuve may be interested just in the first two. He’s always said that he wanted to make Part II after the first one, but he hasn’t talked much about his plans beyond that. If the second movie, which will presumably have a theatrical-only run, does well enough, it’d be easy for Legendary to greenlight another sequel. But we’d also understand if Villeneuve wanted to move on and go back to making his own original movies.
It’s also very interesting how Villeneuve tries to establish that this is not a franchise. The director seems to be particularly picky about that term, especially after his harsh comments on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’d be interesting to see what his definition of a franchise is, for sure.
He is also attached to direct the pilot episode of a spin-off series for HBO Max centered around the Bene Gesserit, though not much progress has been made for that series in a long time.
Dune: Part II will premiere in theaters in October 2023.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
