The saga continues as award-winning filmmaker Denis Villeneuve embarks on “Dune: Part Two,” the next chapter of Frank Herbert’s celebrated novel Dune, with an expanded all-star international ensemble cast. The film, from Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures, is the highly anticipated follow-up to 2021’s six-time Academy Award-winning “Dune.”
The big-screen epic continues the adaptation of Frank Herbert’s acclaimed bestseller Dune with returning and new stars, including Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet (“Wonka,” “Call Me by Your Name”), Zendaya (“Spider-Man: No Way Home,” “Malcolm & Marie,” “Euphoria”), Rebecca Ferguson (“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning”), Oscar nominee Josh Brolin (“Avengers: End Game,” “Milk”), Oscar nominee Austin Butler (“Elvis,” “Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood”), Oscar nominee Florence Pugh (“Black Widow,” “Little Women”), Dave Bautista (the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films, “Thor: Love and Thunder”), Oscar winner Christopher Walken (“The Deer Hunter,” “Hairspray”), Léa Seydoux (the “James Bond” franchise and “Crimes of the Future”), Souheila Yacoub (“The Braves,” “Climax”), with Stellan Skarsgård (the “Mamma Mia!” films, “Avengers: Age of Ultron”), with Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling (“45 Years,” “Assassin’s Creed”), and Oscar winner Javier Bardem (“No Country for Old Men,” “Being the Ricardos”).
“Dune: Part Two” will explore the mythic journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a path of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, he endeavors to prevent a terrible future only he can foresee.
Villeneuve directed from a screenplay he and Jon Spaihts wrote based on Herbert’s novel. The film is produced by Mary Parent, Cale Boyter, Villeneuve, Tanya Lapointe and Patrick McCormick. The executive producers are Joshua Grode, Jon Spaihts, Thomas Tull, Herbert W. Gains, Brian Herbert, Byron Merritt, Kim Herbert, Richard P. Rubinstein and John Harrison, with Kevin J. Anderson serving as creative consultant.
Villeneuve is again collaborating with his “Dune” creatives: Oscar-winning director of photography Greig Fraser; Oscar-winning production designer Patrice Vermette; Oscar-winning editor Joe Walker; Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor Paul Lambert; Oscar-nominated costume designer Jacqueline West; and Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer delivering another epic score. Oscar-winning supervising sound editor Richard King joins the team.
Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures Present A Legendary Pictures Production, A Film By Denis Villeneuve, “Dune: Part Two.” The film is slated for a March 1, 2024 release in theaters and IMAX nationwide and internationally beginning on 28 February 2024, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.
The Continuation of the Epic Story
Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two” continues the story from the prior film, but raises the stakes by offering a completely new experience for audiences, escalating the scope and scale with even more stunning visuals and huge action sequences, along with new characters, even greater adventures and a truly powerful, moving love story.
Set thousands of years in the future and picking up where “Dune” left off, “Dune: Part Two” again follows the mythic journey of Paul Atreides, a young man propelled by fate into an intergalactic power struggle. The son of the murdered ruler Duke Leto Atreides and mystical Bene Gesserit Lady Jessica, Paul was given the ultimate test in “Dune”: to conquer his fears when fate—and powerful unseen forces—pull him into the sands of the remote planet Arrakis.
Exploring themes both timeless and timely, from romantic love and maternal love to globalism, loyalty, revenge and catharsis, “Dune: Part Two” furthers author Frank Herbert’s ecological themes in this tale about humanity versus nature. At the core of the action is a timeless conflict between the forces of good and evil. On one side are the Fremen, a representation of humanity fighting for the collective survival of the native people and of planet Arrakis. On the other side lie the Harkonnen, a manifestation of corruption, violence and greed. Where they meet is the conflicted story of Paul Atreides, leaning into Chani’s fierceness and Stilgar’s wisdom to gain the trust and support of the Fremen people, while the Harkonnens continue to ravage the sands of Arrakis for spice—though their efforts do not go unopposed, further enraging them and leading to an all-out war.
The immersive, dynamic exploration of this spectacular universe continues, with its champions and its plunderers, while also expanding on the theme of female empowerment begun in “Dune.” Joining passionate Fremen warrior Chani, Lady Jessica and the holy Reverend Mother Mohiam from the first film are Princess Irulan, daughter of the Emperor, and Lady Fenring, an enigmatic Bene Gesserit whose interests appear to lie with the Harkonnen and the Baron’s bloodthirsty nephew, Feyd-Rautha.
To take audiences deep into the Fremen world, further into the Baron’s realm on Giedi Prime, and introduce the Emperor and his world—bringing the previously unseen ruler out of the shadows for the first time—the cast and crew returned to the vast sands of Abu Dhabi, to Jordan and to Budapest, and took the production for the first time to Italy.
Sitting Down with Denis Villeneuve
Director · Writer · Producer
On where the story begins in “Dune: Part Two”…
“We pick up the story only a few hours after the end of “Dune,” with Paul and Jessica in the middle of the desert with the Fremen—with Stilgar and Chani—walking toward the Sietch Tabr, trying to find shelter. We start exactly at a moment where they are about to get ambushed by a Harkonnen patrol.”
On Paul’s journey in this film…
“This film is about the integration of Paul and his mother, Jessica, into the Fremen culture, into the Fremen tribes. During this time, Paul and Chani fall in love, and together they start a campaign against the oppressors, their enemies. Paul gets closer to one of his worst nightmares, which is the fulfillment of a prophecy he foresaw—a holy war fought in his name.”
On Paul’s internal struggles…
“Paul is torn between his desire of vengeance and the fact that he has a strong intuition that the path he is on could bring him to catastrophe; that by trying to avenge his father, he could bring his friends, the Fremen, chaos and war. It’s a moral dilemma and he is walking a very fine line, trying to fight his enemies without walking the path of the prophecy that has been laid by the Bene Gesserit sisters before him.”
On working with Timothée Chalamet again…
“It’s the first time in my life as a director that I worked with an actor who was growing up in front of the camera, evolving, learning about life. It was really moving for me to work with Timothée again, to see how much more confident he got. In ‘Part One,’ Timothée was learning how to find his focus in such a large production, as a leading man. He brought a strong spirit on set, and I was very proud of the powerful transformation he brought in front of the camera. It was very moving for me to see how, in ‘Part Two,’ he was able to create the evolution of Paul Atreides that goes from a boy to a dark figure.”
On Chani and her relationship with Paul as he enters her Fremen culture…
“At the beginning, Chani is suspicious, but also curious about this boy coming from another world. Something that deeply touches Chani is that Paul is sincere; she feels that Paul wants to learn about the Fremen ways. Chani, like other young Fremen, doesn’t believe in the Bene Gesserit religious propaganda. She believes that the Fremen should be freed by Fremen, not wait for outsiders—she thinks that those old beliefs are a way to control her people.
But she sees that Paul doesn’t want to act as a colonizer, he doesn’t want to impose his ways, he doesn’t want to be seen as a savior. He just wants to survive, and that touches her, his sincerity. She wants to make sure that he has the necessary tools to survive the harsh conditions of Arrakis. And the more she helps him, the more she knows him and the more it slowly opens her heart.”
On working with Zendaya again…
“Working with Zendaya was one of the things that I was looking forward to on ‘Part Two,’ because I only had a glimpse, a few days with Zendaya on ‘Part One.’ So, I was looking forward to spending much more time, to dig deeper into Chani and bring more of the character to life, and it was a blessing. I sincerely loved working with Zendaya. She’s an astonishing, stunning, incredible actor that can express a rainbow of emotions with very little effort. Her acting is very precise. She’s a force of nature.
On Lady Jessica’s journey…
“In order to be accepted by the Fremen, Lady Jessica has to go to a ceremony that will transform her into a Reverend Mother, meant to carry the memories of all the Reverend Mothers before her—their wisdom and knowledge. But you are not supposed to go to that ceremony when you’re pregnant, which she is, so… She has to take care of that new being that is slowly growing inside her as she, Lady Jessica, becomes more and more powerful. Of course, she is Lady Jessica so she also will use her power to protect Paul and to fulfill her hidden agenda.”
On Stilgar’s role in the story…
“Stilgar is a very tragic figure, a man who constructed his life, his identity, around the idea that he needs the help of someone from outside, a messianic figure, to get rid of his oppressor. He comes from another part of the planet, the South, where those beliefs are strongly implanted. I think that his desire for Paul to be ‘the one’ is bigger than reality. No matter what Paul does, Stilgar wants him to become ‘the one.’ It’s all about the power of faith and the need to have a religious structure to understand the mystery of life.”
On what is at the root of the Fremen culture…
“The Fremen culture is absolutely inspired by the severe condition of the environment, the ecosystem of Arrakis. It’s a planet where the temperatures are super high, where water is like gold, it’s so rare. For the Fremen, water is life, water is everything, water is sacred. In the film, we see how when someone dies, they extract the water from the body and put it into a massive cistern to later be used to bring back the trees on Arrakis. It’s through this process that the Fremen plan to bring back life on this desert planet.”
On the role of the Emperor in this film…
“The Emperor is a technocrat trying to keep control of a galaxy, much like a government struggling to keep control of a country. The man makes no compromises. In the previous film, he did something that went against his own nature, which was to kill one of his friends, Duke Leto Atreides, in order to take his power. He broke his own heart in the process and became a dark figure. It is a weight and guilt that he carries. He’s a broken man.”
On the great Christopher Walken…
“The Emperor is an iconic figure in the film’s story, and I wanted an actor who would bring the gravitas, the depth, the inner turmoil to this character. Christopher Walken was the only one I had in my mind as I was writing the screenplay, so I was blessed that he accepted the part. Frankly, I admit I was shy at the beginning! But he’s a very unique, beautiful and generous artist, and I was moved to see Christopher, even when he was not on camera, he was a gentleman, he was there for the other actors. He has a high spirit and I really loved working with him.”
On Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan…
“I remember the first time I met with Florence to talk about the character, to see if she would be a good fit, and after just a few minutes, I said to myself, ‘I am sitting in front of Princess Irulan right now!’ Florence has that kind of drive, strength, high intelligence that I love and that fit perfectly for Irulan. Irulan is one of the key players in the geopolitical game, and I didn’t want her to be perceived as a victim; she is not used, but willing, playing a game in order to keep her family in power.”
On bringing Feyd-Rautha to the screen…
“To bring Feyd-Rautha to the screen is a responsibility. He’s one of the most iconic characters in the Dune novel. I feel blessed that Austin Butler came onboard. Feyd-Rautha is the nephew of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, and Austin portrayed him as a kind of psychotic killer that is a cross between a sword master and Mick Jagger. He really brought something absolutely mesmerizing to the screen. I’m honestly very proud of this version of Feyd-Rautha and I can’t wait to share what Austin did with the world.”
On what is behind Feyd-Rautha’s actions…
“Feyd is motivated by power and ambition. This is a character with a strong appetite and no moral boundaries—he’s a psychopath.”
On Paul and Feyd’s shared destiny…
“Paul and Feyd find themselves at the epicenter of the story, at a moment where only one of them will be able to ascend to the throne. They have both been bred by the Bene Gesserit. They are both skilled; I would say that they are both at the summit of their powers—strong fighters, strong intellectuals—so, they are the mirror of each other, perfect nemeses. Either could prevail in the end.”
On where we find Baron Harkonnen in this film…
“The Baron survived ‘Part One,’ but he’s a weaker Baron, one that is ready to leave his power to one of his nephews, who thinks about the future. In order to survive, he needs some kind of external breathing system to keep him alive. It was a joy to bring Stellan back—he kept saying to me that he was missing the suit, missing the character, and so he was very happy to come back. His enthusiasm meant the world to me.”
On the unexpected return of Gurney Halleck…
“I was very happy with how Gurney Halleck disappeared in the chaos of war in ‘Part One,’ where we saw him disappear in the night as he fought against the Harkonnens. And we don’t hear about him again. But he survived, along with a few other Atreides soldiers, and hid in the desert. He then sent most of his men back home to Caladan, but being very loyal, he decided to stay on Arrakis in order to avenge the Duke and his friends, waiting for the right moment and the right opportunity to attack Rabban.”
On working with Josh Brolin again…
“Josh is a friend so to bring him back was a pure joy—to further explore the character of Gurney, his relationship with Paul, and finally get some insight into his motivations. I was very proud of how Josh brought Gurney to the screen again.”
On the return of Rebecca Ferguson, Dave Bautista and Charlotte Rampling…
“Rebecca Ferguson had the wildest character to portray in ‘Dune: Part Two.’ She’s portraying Lady Jessica, a mother who has the ability to speak, through her mind, with her unborn daughter. She hears voices from past Reverend Mothers guiding her. And she wants her son to become the king and will do everything she can to fulfill this desire. She is one of the darkest, most powerful forces in this story, the ultimate chess player, and Rebecca absolutely nailed it.”
“Dave is excellent. We spend more time with Beast Rabban—let’s just say, he does not have a good time in ‘Part Two!’ He’s humiliated, he’s struggling with the Fremen, and we see this is a character who is reaching his limit, panicking and losing control of Arrakis.”
“The wonderful Charlotte Rampling again plays the Reverend Mother Mohiam, one of the dark figures behind all the schemes of the story, one of the central figures in the political game and the one who holds the strings—the puppet master. One of my favorite things about Dune is how a congregation of sisters manipulate political power, using very subtle ways, and I was excited to bring back Charlotte on screen.”
On newcomers Léa Seydoux as Lady Margot Fenring and Souheila Yacoub as Shishakli…
“Léa Seydoux portrays Lady Fenring, which is probably the most mysterious character in ‘Part Two.’ She is a Bene Gesserit sister with tremendous power. I don’t want to reveal too much about her, I want the audience to discover her, so I want to keep the mystery alive. But I will say it was a lot of fun to work with Léa, who is an actor that I have admired a long time. It was a privilege to work with her.”
“[Casting director] Francine Maisler brought Souheila to my attention, and Souheila Yacoub is a fantastic, very strong actress from Switzerland, with Tunisian origins. She was definitely a Fremen for me, she brought that spirit on screen in the character of Shishakli, and she was a beautiful discovery.”
On working with fight coordinator Roger Yuan and stunt coordinator Lee Morrison to choreograph the fights and stunts in the film…
“Roger Yuan was our fight coordinator on ‘Part One’ and returned again on ‘Part Two.’ He has tremendous knowledge of all different kinds of fighting and combat. His choreography defines the different ways of fighting for the Fremen, the Harkonnens, the Atreides and the Sardaukar. Everybody has their own way of using swords or daggers, and Roger was able to help us define what the combat shields are and the very precise way of fighting with them. Roger also continues to play the character of Lanville, who has a great confrontation in this film, and it was nice to go deeper with him.”
“I wouldn’t have been able to make this movie without Lee Morrison! He was there to help us with everything, from the sandworm riding sequences, to all the very technical stunts and wire work that require specific technologies.”
On bringing the sandworm riding to life in the film…
“In the book, sandworm riding… it reads spectacularly! It is one of the coolest things about the novel, that the Fremen have the technique to ride the worms and to use them as a method of transport. But reading it is one thing—seeing it is something else. I had to define and create the logic and the technique myself, how to get on a sandworm. I wrote and drew the technique—I had graphics and I explained to the crew how the Fremen ride on the worm, because I wanted it to look as real as possible. I wanted to shoot under real sunlight and on a structure that would look like the worm.
It took a few months of work and a lot of trial and error for our unit to shoot that specifically and if I had done it myself, I would still be shooting right now! It was under the supervision of Tanya Lapointe, the second unit director, in coordination with me. It required a lot of patience, and it was so experimental, it’s by far the most complex sequence I’ve done.”
On working with production designer Patrice Vermette, director of photography Greig Fraser, VFX supervisor Paul Lambert and SFX supervisor Gerd Nefzer to bring the story to life, visually, in a whole new way…
“This was the first time in my life as a film director that I was revisiting a universe, a story. This time, one of my main concerns was to make sure that the audience would not feel a sense of déjà vu.
I wanted to find new locations, and all the sets were new; we did not go back where we left the characters in ‘Part One.’ So Patrice had to design new vehicles, new environments… he was deeply inspired. What was beautiful from ‘Part One’ is that everybody knew the boundaries, the color palette, so we didn’t have to redefine those elements, just use the very specific language that had been tested with ‘Part One.’
And Patrice, he was more creative than ever and really blew my mind with what he brought to the movie. One of my favorite sets is called the Cave of Birds—meant to be carved in the rocks where birds are nesting. It’s like a kind of Fremen shelter that I thought was very poetic and one of the most beautiful sets I have ever seen.”
“I would not be able to make this movie without Greig! Greig is very strong at multitasking and having several units working at the same time, so he was my strongest ally. Also, in ‘Part One,’ we shot the nature and space and the desert for IMAX, but the desert was a small part of that film. In ‘Part Two,’ we are mostly in the desert, so I decided to shoot the movie 100 percent for IMAX, for the biggest canvas, the full immersive experience.
Greig is a master with the format; we made so much effort to bring all the tiny details of the desert and what it is to be walking on Arrakis. I also love how he works with natural light, and that was our approach again, but this time we went a bit more experimental. For example, what is the natural light on Giedi Prime? It’s a fascist world, a world without nuance or subtlety, a harsh world—a world in black and white. The idea that even color doesn’t exist on this world and under the sunlight, and to shoot in black and white, was an idea I had that Greig loved.
He made infrared modifications inside the camera and used a filter that created a very eerie black and white, something very specific with the skin and eyes of the characters, bringing a feeling of surrealism to the light that I really love. It’s very frightening.”
“I try to shoot as much as possible on camera as I can, but it would be absolutely unfair not to talk about the massive input of [VFX supervisor] Paul Lambert. Paul is a magician. I don’t think I could ever do a movie without Paul, he’s a very close ally, a creative brother to me. He is someone that makes sure to bring my vision, all my dreams, to the screen. There are many things we can do in camera but a battle of sandworms fighting against an army of Sardaukar? That’s where I reach a limit, and that’s where I really need Paul’s genius.”
“Again, as a film director, I love to do as much as possible on camera. Of course, in a movie like this there are limits to what we can do. But with [SFX supervisor] Gerd Nefzer, I know that I can push that limit very far. For a sequence with a baby sandworm—I don’t want to give too much away—but to see the worm traveling under the sand, we decided to do it for real, and Gerd used a very sophisticated tracking system with carpets under the sand that created the illusion that the worm was traveling under the sand.
He also had to create the worm, creating a platform on gimbals that were designed to bring the specific movement I was looking for. It was quite tricky. Those are just two of so many things that Gerd did—he also is quite the magician.”
On working again with editor Joe Walker…
“One of my closest collaborators is Joe Walker. Joe is the human I spend the most time with! The thing I love about Joe is that he works as much on sound as he works on the images. There’s a whole structure that we work together on, the structure of sound, a map that is as important as the images when we finish the director’s cut.
And we’re working for the first time with [supervising sound editor] Richard King, a master, and the sound is being mixed by Ron Bartlett and Doug Hemphill, also masters that bring the sound to life. I’m really looking forward to audiences hearing what angry sandworms sound like!”
On once again working with Hans Zimmer to orchestrate the score…
“Hans and I have shared the same passion, the same history with the book from when we were young. Hans was the first artist to join me on ‘Part One,’ and he was the first to join me in ‘Part Two.’ Six months after ‘Dune’ released, Hans was still composing, he was still scoring the movie! I was receiving music from him, and I said, ‘Hans, the movie’s in theaters right now and you’re still sending me music.’
And he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it’s for you, I want you to be inspired for “Part Two.” I cannot stop right now! Just listen and it will inspire you for when you write.’”
On the new music Hans Zimmer created for this film…
“Hans started to build instruments again, do research, go deeper into the world of the Harkonnens. I wanted him to compose music for Feyd-Rautha and the Harkonnen world, and for the Emperor as well. But more importantly, I wanted him to write something unforgettable for Chani. A love theme, the love of Paul for Chani.
I wanted something heartbreaking, and the most beautiful love theme ever written, and honestly I think he did it. It’s one of the most beautiful scores he’s written. I remember when I first listened to it, I was in tears.”
On his hopes for the audience experience of “Dune: Part Two”…
“I hope that audiences will be moved by the relationship of Paul and Chani—‘Part Two,’ at its core, is a love story. And I hope that they feel what it is to ride a sandworm! The exhilarating and dangerous experience of transport.
The chess game between Paul and the Fremen, the Harkonnens, and the Imperium that creates epic battles and subtle mind games. And the amazing fight scenes! Everything about ‘Dune: Part Two’ was designed for audiences to see in the cinema, with the big screen and the proper sound, together—the most powerful way to enjoy movies!”
Sitting Down with the Cast
— Timothée Chalamet —
Paul Atreides
The son of a Duke born into a destiny greater than his royal title, Paul is now fully entrenched in the epic adventure that has taken him across the galaxy to the barren and inhospitable Planet Arrakis, where even greater danger awaits at every turn. With his father dead, his mother on a journey of her own and Chani by his side, Paul must earn the respect of the skeptical local population, the Fremen, face his fears and, ultimately, face his most brutal enemies, in order to defend Arrakis and exact revenge upon the people who destroyed his family.
On returning to the world of “Dune” for “Dune: Part Two”…
“It was a dream to return to the world of ‘Dune,’ not only returning to castmates I had a beautiful working experience with the first time, but also getting to see their characters expand, like Chani. And getting to work with new, super-talented actors, like Austin Butler, and Florence Pugh, who I’d done a film with before. And of course getting to see Denis bring his full vision to life.”
On how “Dune: Part Two” picks up from the first film…
“The story of ‘Dune: Part Two’ picks up right where the first movie ended, maybe a couple of hours later, and Paul and Jessica are with the Fremen, with Chani, under the leadership of Stilgar—and in immediate threat of Harkonnen exposure. Denis continues the world building, we explore the Imperium, the Harkonnens, the Sardaukar, the Atreides and the Fremen.”
On Paul’s journey within the story…
“This part of the story, for Paul Atreides, is about a young man not wanting to accept his destiny, or fate, that’s unfolding before him—a duty, a responsibility to lead that feels greater than what he’s capable of, and what he wants to do. It will require so much of him that his immediate preoccupation, his immediate desire to love and be loved by Chani, will be superseded by this responsibility.
And because of what happened in the first movie, he’s struggling with what it is to become a man without a father or father figure, without his friends and family, who have been obliterated by the Harkonnen. Also, what it means as an outsider to be chosen, whether by destiny or by people, to lead.”
On Paul’s evolution within the Fremen…
“Paul is meant to go down a path that he’s reluctant to. He still has visions, which are not entirely clear to him, but which are destructive; he doesn’t want to go anywhere near them. As he becomes more a part of the Fremen, he becomes the Muad’Dib—a namesake he chooses for the desert mouse that lives on Arrakis.
This is actually one of my favorite parts of the book and of the film because often we see the lion or tiger or cheetah as the animalistic metaphor for our leaders, our heroes. And there’s something apt about this small desert mouse that moves in the cracks and is self-sustaining with its moisture—barely—that works for this young man whose circumstance is so beyond him, whose life story is something of a tragedy, having lost his father and his people, but he has to persevere. It’s not Paul the Braveheart or Paul the Lionheart, it’s Paul the Muad’Dib. There’s something that I always found powerful about that.”
On connecting to Paul having to accept his destiny…
“Paul is reluctant. He’s not a person who has delusions of grandeur and power. So, I had to think, what would that actually mean, if that was your fate? What would that actually feel like? What would it be like to stand in the middle of a room and declare yourself a leader, and be entirely within your rights doing so? And what would that entail?”
On what it was like working with Denis Villeneuve again…
“For an actor, at least for me, your relationship with your director is incredibly important. And Denis is amazing, such an amazing leader and partner and friend. I had just come off shooting ‘Wonka’ when we started up, and he helped me find my way back into Paul. And of course, Denis’ passion for the material, and being in the environments that he and our amazing design teams created helped, because I could pull from that and feel the weight, the pressure that Paul was feeling.”
On Paul and his mother, Lady Jessica, played by Rebecca Ferguson, having diverging journeys this time around…
“Lady Jessica is going through a sort of physically and emotionally torturous experience in this movie and, if she survives it, if she doesn’t get killed by this process, it will set in motion the path she envisions for Paul to be the ‘one.’ And she is also carrying a baby, a fully sentient, intelligent being. Once more, Rebecca just did an incredible job bringing this character to life. There’s an element in her physical performance that’s entirely different from the work she was doing on the first film and super impressive.”
On Paul’s changing relationship with Chani…
“Chani is sort of Paul’s moral compass. Her strong ethics add to her great character, and Paul feels that he’s similar to her, that he’s worthy, ethically, and he’s trying to become a partner to her, the man he wants to be to her, and they grow incredibly close. Chani’s so sure of herself, so on her heels. She knows who she is, her heart’s in the right place.”
On working with Zendaya again…
“Zendaya is strong, like Chani, in many ways. We only had a couple of days working together on the first film, but we became quite close and good friends after that. But I think the friendship that had grown between the films helped us grow Paul and Chani for this one. It was a wonderful experience to get to work with the actor she’s become—she’s firing on all cylinders! She was a real partner in crime and I’m grateful we had such a great experience.”
On working with Florence Pugh again…
“Florence Pugh is amazing in this movie. She brought a steeliness, a fierceness, to this role that is just incredible. It was inspiring to be working with her.”
On Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen…
“I don’t want to give anything away about what happens in the film, but I will say that Austin Butler is extraordinary as Feyd-Rautha, I mean really extraordinary.”
On training for his fight scene with Austin Butler in the film…
“Training started from day one. I started learning the fight choreography in Los Angeles, I think Austin was already in Budapest. So, as soon as I got there, we were working on the fight. He was a dedicated scene partner and fight partner. Not only is he an incredible actor, he’s a super hard worker, he really cares about the work. And that whole sequence was just epic—no other way to put it.”
On the sandworm riding sequence and its significance in the film…
“The sandworm sequence—scene 62!—was shot over the course of three months. There was an entire worm unit dedicated to it that our producer Tanya Lapointe, who was also our second unit director, directed, and she was hugely passionate about it. It’s such an important moment in Paul’s entry to the Fremen world, his acceptance by them—other than Chani and Stilgar, of course—and it was so important to get it right. It was incredibly complex.
Paul learning how to ride the sandworm is akin to coming of age. It’s a rite of passage and one of the main reason Paul is accepted amongst the Fremen, because someone who wasn’t one with Shai-Hulud, which is the Fremen word for the sandworm, would have died in that predicament, and Paul doesn’t. He rides the worm.”
On learning Chakobsa, the Fremen language, for the film…
“For me, as an actor, it was a little bit like doing Shakespeare in high school, where it’s so humbling. At first, it can feel so futile, but when you finally do wrap your head around it, it’s like the definition of acting, in some sense. The language was created for the film, and we had an amazing dialect coach Fabien Enjalric, who was very honest about the pronunciation. It was a humbling but very cool experience as an artist, to have a monologue that is not grounded in any real language.”
— Zendaya —
Chani
A powerful Fremen warrior skilled at survival in the harsh desert dunes of Arrakis, Chani is no longer simply a mysterious vision that visits Paul’s dreams, but a fierce ally fighting alongside him. Though she understands Paul’s drive for vengeance, she is ultimately driven by a higher calling to defend her people and their way of life. With Paul now living among the Fremen, their relationship deepens into a profound love and mutual respect that helps guide Paul to a greater understanding of the people and the planet, a crucial part of his journey to becoming the leader he was born to be.
On returning for “Dune: Part Two”…
“I only had a few days of filming on ‘Dune,’ so I was excited to come back and have a chance to explore so much more of Chani. Filming ‘Dune: Part Two’ absolutely surpassed any kind of dream I could’ve ever had. Being on those sets, with those incredibly talented people in every department… I was in awe.”
On literally picking up where Chani left off…
“We literally pick up where we left off, in the desert with Paul and Jessica and the Fremen, which is so funny because I felt like we were shooting the same sequence over four years! I remember thinking, ‘Wait a minute, I’m still in the same outfit, what’s going on?’”
On the very significant and immediate change in Chani’s life…
“Little did Chani know what was coming into her life! She’s just met this foreigner, Paul Atreides, who just bested one of her friends, Jamis, and he and his mother have nowhere else to go to be safe, so they take them with them. But she’s apprehensive. She treats him like someone who has to earn their respect and earn their way into being a Fremen, so she’s a little tough on him, always watching him. Of course, she learns that he may also be the one that her elders have spoken of, who is supposed to come and save them, so I think she treats him that way because she is afraid of what he represents. And because her heart is starting to feel something that I don’t think she’s ever felt before.”
On what it is about Paul that starts to melt Chani’s tough exterior…
“Ultimately, I think that, in the beginning of the story, she starts to soften toward Paul because he is sincere. He does want to be there for no other reason than to learn their ways and to become Fremen. He wants to earn her respect and her trust. And also, he rejects the idea of this life that his mother has kind of forced him into, this idea of him being the ‘one.’ That’s comforting to Chani because she rejects that whole idea, too. And, of course, another reason is love. You can’t really decide who you love.”
On the themes of the film and the way they are played out…
“What Denis has done so beautifully is show the distinction between the older and younger generations. The Fremen have had years and years of propaganda pushed upon them: the ‘one’ will come and save them. Many of them believe this. We’re dealing with that generational division nowadays with the new generation of people see things through a completely different lens and with a completely different set of rules.”
On how Chani fits into the world of the Fremen as a younger person…
“Chani is part of the generation that’s fighting back against what she perceives as archaic ideas. She believes this is what has been oppressing her people. So, her entire journey is one of sincerity, an honestness to learn and grow from Paul. She’s falling in love with him, but at the same time hating what he represents, and that’s really difficult for her because she cares about her people and wants the best for her community.
Paul throws a wrench in that situation and it’s really difficult for her to grapple with that, and she wants to believe that he’s on her side. It takes him time to win her over and to crack her shell and for her to be trusting of him. Their love story is really earned.”
On bringing Dune, and Chani, to a contemporary audience…
“Denis was able to take the bones of a really beautiful piece of literature and then carve out things that match our modern times. It was important to me and to Denis that Chani had more agency, and the script gave Chani so much more to fight for and to dig into. Chani has a little bit more fire.
It also allowed her to be complicated. I love characters that are stuck between what their heart says and what their mind says, because it’s a lot more fun to play a character that is in emotional turmoil and really struggling to figure out the right thing to do.”
On how she personally connects to Chani…
“I was constantly in that battle with Chani between her mind and her heart, all the time. I think she’s a lot tougher than I am, by far—she would kick my ass! She has such strength, which I admire, and such a passion for the betterment of her people, looking out for her people, taking care of her loved ones and her planet, which means more to her than anything.
I love very hard as well, and I have a much easier job than she does because I’m not a space warrior, but I think in whatever I do, I try to do it with the best sense of heart and integrity. Like Chani, I want to lead with what I feel is right, not just for myself but for the people around me.”
On taking Chani to the next level…
“I talked to Denis about how I really wanted to do cool stuff with Chani, like, I wanted to fight! That was really important to me, that she was a part of as much action as possible. And man, did I get it! She is extremely tough and a very skilled fighter, she’s pretty badass. I’m very grateful for that.”
On the fascinating Fremen water ritual seen in the film…
“There is no water so every drop, they preserve. There was something delicate and beautiful about the ceremony they have to save the water from the bodies of the dead. The emphasis on water being their most precious resource reflects the experiences of many in our world where there are people fighting for clean water.”
On working with Denis Villeneuve…
“On some big film like this, the nuance and the subtleties get lost, but Denis never lost sight of those things. He was also always open to having conversations with the actors and the heads of departments if there was something that they wanted to creatively bring to the table and discuss. He was so open and collaborative.
I think that spirit of collaboration on something with this kind of massive scale is what lends itself to being a film with real heart and human emotion. He was so down to work with his collaborators, which felt really nice.”
On working with Timothée Chalamet…
“Timothée and I have become very close; he’s like my brother, like someone you know you’re going to be friends with for a very long time. I hope we end up like Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem, who sit around reminiscing about the films they’ve done together and the experiences they’ve had.
It was sometimes hard, with long days in the desert, and I was grateful to have someone laugh with and have a good time with. I didn’t have many scenes with Christopher Walken and Florence Pugh, but his presence just walking in the room… he feels like an Emperor! And Florence was so lovely and kind and has such a regal way, she was meant to be Princess Irulan.”
On the first film’s success and her expectations for “Dune: Part Two”…
“There’s a desire for escapism into another world. Although it’s set thousands of years in the future on different planets, there is a real human element to the story and that’s what Denis Villeneuve captures so well. So it doesn’t feel completely alien; it feels like something that you can relate to, whether it be love, or a relationship between a mother and their son, or the pressures of being a certain person or having to fill certain shoes that you may not feel you’re ready to fill.”
— Rebecca Ferguson —
Lady Jessica
A mother whose unbreakable bond with her son, Paul, helped them both survive Harkonnen attack and indoctrination into the Fremen, Lady Jessica must now begin her own spiritual and physical journey amidst the people of Dune. Drawing on every ounce of her strength, she takes on the mantle of Reverend Mother while awaiting the birth of a new child…one with whom she has already forged a deep connection.
On returning for “Dune: Part Two” and where we find Lady Jessica…
“It’s newer, it’s bigger, it’s grander, it’s everything the first film was and more! What made it most interesting for me is the switch in the character of Lady Jessica. At this moment, she’s lost everything—her husband, her home, her people, her planet—and has been cast into the unknown, so she couldn’t be in more of a vulnerable state of being. And this film sees her going from being the Bene Gesserit, protective mother to her son, to taking charge when she becomes a Reverend Mother.”
On changes Denis Villeneuve made for her character that give the actress a new dynamic to play…
“In the book, Jessica has had the baby already and has to cross the desert with the Fremen, carrying a young baby. Denis decided that Jessica should remain pregnant throughout and I thought it was astonishingly brilliant.
It put another dynamic to Jessica’s journey, because now she’s not just protecting what she has created in Paul, but she has another, not-yet-born child, one with the powers that came when she decided to drink the liquid to become the Reverend Mother. She is so vulnerable and constantly aware of her children, and I always find it interesting to dig into the vulnerability.”
On how Jessica maintains her composure throughout the turmoil all around her…
“There’s a very calming sense of stability with her, a constant stillness. She has a superpower, but she has to be relatable, and I had a lot of discussions with Denis Villeneuve about that. She also has her famous Litany of Fear to recite when she needs to call upon other forces to get her through the most difficult moments, and she even has that tattooed across her face in the Fremen language, so it’s with her always.
What she goes through, the choices she has to make, are extraordinary. But Stilgar very easily points out that they have no use for her; they have use for Paul, but not for Jessica, unless she takes the place of Reverend Mother. So, it’s die…or die and relive. Rock and a hard place.”
On working with Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya again…
“Timothée had such a mature approach to the story and introduced a whole new perspective that I hadn’t seen, and it makes the dynamic between Paul and Jessica very different to the first film. And Zendaya is a wonderful actress and the perfect Chani. I respect her so much. I think she’s the most exquisite role model for the youth.”
On the environment Villeneuve fosters on set…
“There are no selfish egos on Denis’ sets, and that’s due to him. Like before, everyone was so friendly, so kind, so generous; everyone can be themselves and feel safe in who they are and what they want to deliver. That is unique and it is about how Denis creates an environment. His are really among the best sets I’ve ever been on.”
— Josh Brolin —
Gurney Halleck
Once the trusted advisor of Duke Leto and Warmaster of House Atreides, Gurney Halleck narrowly escaped death during the Harkonnens’ most recent attack, which all but decimated those he had sworn to protect. His expertise in battle is once welcome when he is unexpectedly reuinited with Paul, who is facing new enemy threats at every turn on his path to vengeance.
On the next chapter audiences will experience, “Dune: Part Two”…
“‘Dune Part Two’ is about a young man truly growing into maturity. It’s something that we can all identify with. It’s about a human being becoming fully themselves and it can be a lonely process, but you’re not alone, because it takes a village. All these characters, I think more than any other story I’ve ever been involved with, are essential to his coming to terms with himself.”
On returning to his character, Gurney Halleck, and where his journey takes him…
“I love that Gurney brings in this irreverence, but he can turn around and be a severe badass. It’s nice to be able to see both sides of that character. Gurney brings a certain verve and fire, a kind of feral feeling. The story has become very spiritual, and I think Gurney represents the kind of madman in us all. He is also struggling with the place he’s ended up in. He thinks, ‘Where do I fit in as a leader? Where do I fit in as a warrior? Where do I fit in?’”
On working with the great Christopher Walken and other newcomers to the “Dune” world, Austin Butler and Florence Pugh…
“For me, Chris Walken has been on a pedestal for many decades. He’s given some of the greatest performances you’ve ever seen. So, to work with him and to watch someone with that legendary power work was super special. As an actor, Chris is totally committed.”
“Florence Pugh is one of the coolest people I’ve ever met. She has a lot of energy, and she can tap into emotion at will and it’s very, very powerful. I have a lot of respect for that woman. She’s a special actress. And as for Austin Butler, I went to set just to watch him, because he’s another actor where I think, ‘I’m glad you exist.’”
On reuniting with director and friend Denis Villeneuve…
“I love and respect Denis so much. Watching him direct, you can see his range—he’s got technical expertise, he can see a story all the way through, he can demand more of his actors in a way that truly works for the film, he doesn’t throw his ego around… You usually don’t find all of those attributes in one director. He was aiming for a vision that we all trusted and that ultimately was going to make the film better. I like working with good directors and Denis is one of our best, if not our best right now.”
— Austin Butler —
Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen
House Harkonnen’s deadliest weapon is now ready to be revealed…
Feline, muscular and with the full-body alopecia typical of the Harkonnens, Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen’s intelligence is matched by his cruelty, and he employs both in combat, making him a truly formidable foe to anyone that crosses his path. It just may be that Baron Harkonnen has bigger plans for this bloodthirsty nephew with a twisted sense of honor and a passion for pain—others’ as well as his own. Feyd’s skills will be put to the test outside of his gladiators’ practice ring when he is sent to battle an unexpected enemy.
On becoming a massive fan of the first film, “Dune,” having read the novel as a teen…
“The first time I watched it I had the same feelings I felt when I saw ‘Apocalypse Now’ for the first time. I knew right then that I wanted to be a part of the next one. So, I feel very fortunate.”
On his reaction when first reading the script for “Dune: Part Two”…
“As soon as I read the script and spoke to Denis, I knew that it was going to be so much fun. Denis is an incredible writer, he understands story and humanity and is able to layer it really well. He also writes in a very visual way, so I knew it was going to be a great film. You don’t get to play characters like this every day, and on top of that was the challenge of the physical transformation. It was also about getting into his psychology, discussing with Denis why he behaves like he does, his relationship with his family and the brutal world of the uncle, which he grew up within.
Characters like Feyd can be hard to justify, yet humanity is full of those types of people, so shining a light on that part of the human condition was a fascinating thing to explore.”
On what struck a chord with him about the story…
“Dune is so relevant now. When I first read the book, I was 15, I didn’t understand those themes of corruption and greed and power, or the idea of one society living in harmony with nature and another society exploiting nature. But rereading it and then reading the screenplay, it felt like it is talking about what’s happening in the news today.”
On working with director Denis Villeneuve…
“Denis is really an exceptional person. He’s so kind and thoughtful in his collaboration. He really listens and he won’t just go straight to an answer if he doesn’t have it; he’ll tell you that he wants to dream on it and then he’ll come back with a vividly detailed reason for whatever his vision is. He’s a true genius when you watch him at work. I felt so incredibly in awe of him every day. And he made it look so easy.”
On working with Timothée Chalamet, Florence Pugh and fellow House Harkonnen castmates Stellan Skarsgård and Dave Bautista…
“Timothée is a fantastic actor and a really generous guy, we had a blast together. It can be tough doing physical fight scenes; you have to have a rapport with the other person, so it’s like dancing together, but Timothée was a great dancing partner. I had a blast playing villainous characters with Stellan Skarsgård and Dave Bautista, they are both such sweet and funny guys and they welcomed me with open arms. And I had a great time with Florence Pugh, who is one of the greatest actresses around now. I felt so blessed getting to work with such great people.”
On training for the role of Feyd-Rautha, a vicious fighter and psychopath…
“I had months to train with this amazing guy, Duffy Gaver, who is a stuntman and was a Navy SEAL, and of course Roger Yuan, he’s brilliant, a legend, and I get to fight him in the film. I knew the fight scenes were going to be really taxing, and I wanted them to feel powerful, so we trained a lot. We did a lot of Kali, which is Filipino stick fighting, and a lot of knife work. It was really about trying to find Feyd’s fighting style, and if Paul has training in the Atreides and Fremen way of fighting, how does Feyd’s differ. And I trained vocally as well. And once I saw myself in the mirror and I didn’t have any hair, and I had the black teeth… You start to see the transformation, and that just becomes a blast, because then you can lose yourself in it.”
— Florence Pugh —
Princess Irulan
Princess Irulan—daughter of Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV and protégé of the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Mohiam—is an elegant, regal young woman with a strategic mind and observant nature. Called upon for her opinion on handling a potential uprising on Arrakis, she does not shrink when offering her opinions, no matter how unpopular. Still, though her father is a master of chess, she is disturbed by an understanding that his true power comes from treating his people like pawns, knowing it only matters that, in the end, he wins.
On her excitement to join the “Dune” universe…
“It was quite possibly the most thrilling welcome to a world I think I have ever experienced, and probably ever will experience. I’d always wondered if they’d ever make those huge epics again, and then ‘Dune’ came out and it truly was an epic. Joining it has been huge, and being able to walk onto the sets and being able to be a part of Denis Villeneuve’s imagination is quite an experience. If Denis told me I could be Spear Carrier #3, I’d have said yes, just to experience the entire beast of this movie. Joining the cast as epic as this is always something that you want to get involved with.”
On what she loved about the first film, and about Villeneuve’s skill as a director…
“I felt with ‘Dune,’ I was completely twisting and turning as the story was. Every single music cue made my skin get goose bumps. What is such an amazing achievement on Denis’s part is creating a whole new world in the way that it sounds, and the way that the people sound. That was something that was just so thrilling.”
On what she finds fascinating about her character, Princess Irulan…
“Irulan is very brooding. She’s very quiet in the way that she watches the narrative unfold. At first glance, you could think that maybe she isn’t quite aware of what’s going on, but she’s always there, and she’s always calculating. Those are always characters that I am drawn to. There’s so much possibility with a character that’s watching. Denis kept on telling me that the role was quite small, but I don’t mind that because that’s more of a challenge!”
On what Irulan’s connection to the Bene Gesserit in the story…
“Irulan is the narrator in the books. She is all about the future, what’s going to happen next. She’s going to take over the empire, she’s been trained in that, and she’s Reverend Mother’s pet student…but she is the pet student who is souring and has taken all of the Reverend Mother’s teachings in a different way. She’s definitely someone who knows she has importance, and that’s also bit scary. And she realizes she’s part of Reverend Mother’s plans and wants the exact same thing she wants.”
On Princess Irulan’s interest in Paul Atreides…
“The relationship between Paul and Princess Irulan is totally political. It shows you the kind of woman that she has been brought up to be and the brain that she has, that she has been watching him, calculating his moves, figuring out who he is.”
On her first days of filming “Dune: Part Two”…
“My first three days of shooting were in June in Italy. I had three days with Léa Seydoux and Charlotte Rampling, and it was just the most unbelievable three days ever. It was a completely stress-free set, just acting, all day, all night, for three days with these two mega-women that I have looked up to for such a long time, and they truly are, like, crème de la crème of the women actors. One of my peaks of my career is being with them for those three days. And then I got to hang out with Christopher Walken for two weeks! I had to keep on reminding myself that this is not normal, and I shouldn’t get used to it!”
On reuniting with former costar Timothée Chalamet…
“‘Little Women’ was one of my first really big movies with really big actors. I remember feeling very small in comparison to the machine that that was. Timothée had exploded four or five months beforehand, and I remember bowing down to him all the time. Working with him again four years later, I can see how much he’s grown and how much of an actor he was before. To be able to see your friend step up to the challenge of being not only an incredible actor, but also holding a room and carrying a movie, is such a feeling of pride. And I love working with him. He’s a big teddy bear.”
— Dave Bautista —
“Beast” Rabban Harkonnen
As animalistic and savage as his name implies, the Beast Rabban, nephew of the sadistic Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, remains his towering enforcer on Arrakis… for now. Still a brutal force of nature, Rabban’s outbursts are even more incomprehensible and unpredictable as his rage continues to grow—along with his obsession with ridding Arrakis of the Fremen. However, Rabban is unaware his position of power may soon be challenged by one of his own.
On working again with frequent collaborator Denis Villeneuve…
“I’ve always had such a good experience working with Denis, so I always look forward to getting back on set with him. He always challenges me to be the best I can. I always look forward to his notes, because I know that when he gives me notes, it’s a new challenge. I want to deliver for him, and when he’s happy, I’m happy.”
On how we—and he—find his character, “Beast” Rabban, in this film…
“Rabban is a brute, a psychopath, a murderer, and that’s how he rules. He rules with anger and fear. I think he underestimates everything he’s up against, he has brute power but not a lot of brains behind it. He’s a bully and he’s a coward, but that’s how he gets by, on his intimidation and fear and anger. But this time, it’s just not working out for him.”
On the experience of playing the role again…
“Playing a character like that who is so different from who I am is what excites me. I had the chance to stretch myself and to perform. Because the rest of the cast were so great, I felt completely comfortable doing my thing and not worrying about being judged. Being part of a cast like this was a luxury, because you got to step back and to watch really brilliant actors do their thing. And they brought the best out in each other rather than compete with each other.”
On his hopes for the audiences’ reaction to “Dune: Part Two”…
“I hope that when fans of the first one see this film, they feel as fulfilled as they did with ‘Dune.’ I hope they are inspired and captivated and blown away by the universe that Denis has created and now expanded in a whole new way. I hope these movies will live on forever.”
— Christopher Walken —
Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV
The pinnacle of power in the Known Universe, the Imperium keeps a watchful eye over all Houses, rewarding alliance and punishing betrayal.
As enigmatic as he is charismatic, with eyes that betray his otherwise inscrutable features, the Emperor, like the Bene Gesserit who guide him, excels at strategic manipulation. Only those closest to him can discern whether his actions—or inaction—weigh heavily on him. Directing those who reside within House Atreides and House Harkonnen like pieces on a Cheops chessboard, his ultimate prize is not merely the precious commodity known as Spice, but the universal power it brings to whomever controls it.
On playing the key role of the Emperor in “Dune: Part Two”…
“The Emperor, he’s the boss. The planet where he lives, Kaitain, is a beautiful planet with lots of green and trees, and it’s quite different from Arrakis. I remember the first time I had to play a king on stage, I said to another actor, ‘How am I going to play a king? I’m from Queens and I grew up in the neighborhood.’
He said, ‘Don’t worry about it, the king is seen by reflection, you’ll be a king by the way people treat you.’ I thought that was wise. So here, I didn’t have to try to be the Emperor, I just relied on Denis Villeneuve and the beautiful sets and the costumes and that if people treated me like the Emperor, then I’d be okay.”
On working with director Denis Villeneuve for the first time…
“Denis Villeneuve is a brilliant man. I hadn’t met him before, I knew him from his movies—I saw the first ‘Dune’ many times—I knew him from what I’d heard from people that I know who had worked with him. He’s got so much experience and technique; he really knows how to do it. There are a few times you work with directors, and you feel like you’re really in good hands. This is one of those times.”
On the themes of the film…
“This film is about power, about families, vengeance, rivalries. And love, it’s a love story.”
— Léa Seydoux —
Lady Margot Fenring
Despite carrying herself with the serene bearing of a Bene Gesserit, Lady Margot Fenring finds herself seduced by the animalistic power of Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen as he demonstrates his ruthless skills in combat. It is, however, her understanding of Reverend Mother Mohiam’s strategy and her highly perceptive ability to see plans within plans that make Lady Fenring mysterious figure in the shadows, who is quietly scouting the prospects for Mother Mohiam’s long-term strategy.
On her first impressions of her character, Lady Margot Fenring…
”What I liked about Lady Fenring is that she’s mysterious and driven and she has this power of attraction. She has a power like a magnet, and she knows how to reach her goal. But she has failures and she’s not as tough as she seems to be. I’ve always liked to play characters that are a mystery. When I discussed the character with Denis, he said like she seems cold and quite hard to reach.”
On what the enigmatic Lady Fenring truly wants…
“Her main goal is to continue the bloodline and that it will be the purest and best bloodline. It’s a very fascist idea. What I love about the movie is that the world is, in a way, run by women. The Bene Gesserit are the real masters, and that’s true in a way: women are very powerful because they carry the future. They have that very strong survival instinct.”
On the script and her admiration for Denis Villeneuve…
“I just loved the script and the love story between Paul and Chani and I found it very metaphorical. Denis’s mis-en-scene is outstanding, and he has so many ideas. He knows what he wants and has an inner fire, which is very inspiring. But he’s also very funny and he made us feel very comfortable and created a real intimacy on set, which is helpful on a big film like this. I love to work with great directors. He’s so passionate. I feel very, very lucky to have been part of this.”
On working with her castmates and the talented artisans on Villeneuve’s team…
“Charlotte Rampling is such a legendary actress and I really love her. We had a great connection. Florence and Austin were just extraordinary. And the designers, Patrice Vermette and Jacqueline West, and Greig Fraser the cinematographer, and everyone in the crew gave so much, they were really committed and created a magnificent aesthetic vision. It’s a huge, big production, but it didn’t feel like one. Denis had a real vision, and he made the film very personal. That’s something that I really admire. It’s true cinema. He’s a great cinephile.”
— Souheila Yacoub —
Shishakli
Chani’s closest and oldest friend in the Sietch Tabr, Shishakli is a funny, loyal ally to her northern Fremen comrade, and a tough fighter. She speaks loudly and quickly and with honesty, but also listens to Chani when she needs to share her thoughts, whether about the differences in the old and new ways of thinking among their people, or about Chani’s growing interest in Paul Atreides.
On getting the call from Denis Villeneuve about the role…
“Being in this film, it’s honestly a dream come true for me. First of all, Denis is one of my favorite directors of all time. And became my favorite human. When I got the call from Denis that he was offering me the part of Shishakli, I didn’t believe him at first. I was so nervous that I don’t really remember what he said, I just heard, ‘Sou, I would love to offer you the part of Shishakli.’ I thought it was a prank, till my first day on set, with the actors and the crew. They welcomed me so warmly. After my first scene and my first, ‘And cut,’ Denis came and said, ‘Et voila, Shishakli is born.’ This was probably one of the most special days in my entire life.”
On her impressions of the Fremen from the first film…
“I remember when I watched the first movie, the first thing that impressed me was the photography of it, which was not comparable to what I saw in movies before. And I remember I looked at the Fremen tribe and I thought how amazing they look, how smart the costumes were and how modern they are and behave, they are equal and respectful. We were joking on set—call us the Fremenists! I was really impressed by this very complex story, there is so much in the movie: philosophy, religion, environment, nature, death.”
On acting alongside Zendaya as Chani…
“We had so much fun together! We laughed all the time, as Chani and Shishakli do. Of course, when they called action, we behaved! Working with Zendaya was so natural—it felt like we were not acting when we were together, which was unique.” I learned so much from her. And all the cast. And Denis. And Greig Fraser. And Yuan. And Tanya and Tom and Fran, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.”
— Stellan Skarsgård —
Baron Vladimir Harkonnen
Now more powerful than ever, House Harkonnen’s alliance with the Emperor has given them back control of Arrakis, and perhaps next… the universe.
Evil personified, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen continues to be a Machiavellian force of malevolence, determined to feed his addiction for cold, remorseless brutality upon others…no matter which house they belong to. The monstrous head of House Harkonnen may be somewhat weakened after his brush with death at Duke Leto’s hand, but remains determined to claim the spice-rich sands of Dune by any means necessary. While this black-blooded tyrant is breathing—no matter how labored—no one is safe…not even his own kin.
On returning to the “Dune” universe…
“It’s a fantastic universe. It’s very rare that you have a science fiction story that not only presents another time—usually it’s another time—but where the culture is the same. Usually, it’s basically modern American culture, but in the future, with gadgets. But this is a renaissance culture, a medieval culture, but in the future. The exotic quality of entering another culture is also fascinating.
And in fact it’s several cultures, because the Fremen culture is one culture, Harkonnen another, Atreides. Harkonnen is what I think Machiavelli would have called a menacing selfishness. Like, you want to take over a city, you take the city, and then you have to kill all the nobility because they will fight you. So if you’re a leader, you have somebody that kills all the nobility, and then you get rid of him.
On the look and feel of the new film…
Again Denis has created a universe that is beautiful, like before, but again it’s not beautiful as décor. It’s beautiful for a purpose. It creates an intense, very strange pressure on you as an audience, and you get drawn into it. Of course, there will be all the fights. There will be all the drama that carries the story. But it will also be absolutely unique, I’m sure.”
On where his character, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, is in this chapter of the story…
“Well, in the last film, I win. I take Arrakis. Of course, as the Baron I don’t have to deal with that. I don’t have to fight, which is really good! I got armies to do it for me. That’s what a ruler like the Baron does, just send them out to die for you. But after almost dying last time, I’m not in good condition, so I’m looking to see who will be my best successor. That’s a big part of this film.”
On perhaps the most influential culture in the film, the Bene Gesserit…
“What I still find interesting, maybe most interesting, is the culture of the Bene Gesserit, because the idea that you marry for love, that has been reserved for the poor classes usually, throughout history. It’s a fairly modern thing. If you look at the Roman Empire, even the strong women that were in power, they married for political reasons. Practical reasons, money. Of course, there are women and men that marry for money today as well, but it’s not as accepted in the culture as it was back then. But the Bene Gesserit have a plan.
While the Emperor and the Harkonnen, my character, the Baron, are thinking, ‘How do we keep power now?’ the Bene Gesserit have a much, much bigger plan, that goes over a thousand years. There is a parallel power struggle going on, and they’re in control of that. And they even create religion on different planets, so that they can use the power of that religion when they want, even if it is hundreds of years later. So, there’s a lot of intricate and interesting social, and cultural things in the mix.
On returning to work with Denis Villeneuve…
Working with Denis is terrific. His style on the set is wonderful. He’s not the director that sits at home and decides every detail, he has to see things, he is extremely alive on the set. And that is, as an actor, that’s wonderful, because you want the process on the set to be a creative process. You don’t want it to be like filling in the colors in something that has already been designed. And he’s very nice to everybody, he listens to everybody. The atmosphere on the set is one of the friendliest I’ve been to, it’s non-hierarchical and it’s very, very open. That’s very nice. As an actor, you want to make him happy. And I think everybody on the set really wants to make him happy because he’s a very happy person.”
— Charlotte Rampling —
Reverend Mother Mohiam
This mysterious Sisterhood use their psychic power and legacy of superstition to guide humanity’s destiny from the shadows.
A senior figure of the matriarchal secret order known as the Bene Gesserit, the wise Imperial Truthsayer Gaius Helen Mohiam continues to use prophecy and superstition to manipulate human history, both from the shadows and at the Emperor’s side. Enjoying her success with the Emperor’s daughter, Princess Irulan, as a budding strategist ensures her teachings will continue. As always, the Bene Gesserit play the long game, siding with whomever they can control and forever course-correcting humanity’s journey on the path to the light.
On the role of the Bene Gesserit and her character, Reverend Mother Mohiam, in the new film…
“The Bene Gesserit are a form of sisterhood, but we’re not quite sure about their aims. The Reverend Mother has been instructing Irulan, who will be the Emperor’s successor if the Reverend Mother manages to put certain things into place. I like to imagine that I could be that powerful. And bringing all that into a role is what makes what I do such fun.
On working with the actors who portray the Reverend Mother’s protégés, Princess Irulan and Lady Margot Fenring—Florence Pugh and Léa Seydoux…
“It was a treat to work with Florence Pugh and Léa Seydoux because they’re another generation from me, so it was like I was instructing my two beautiful pupils in the art of manipulation and power play to make sure that the Reverend Mother has total control.”
On director Denis Villeneuve’s approach and the scale of his vision…
“Denis brings a poetic and philosophical sense to the story, which you get in reading Frank Herbert’s book and which I think is why it’s very powerful to people, because it’s also very interior and the imagination is of a hugely poetic nature. Denis is able to get this in his visuals and in his narration. He’s able to get a kind of mystery about what is happening. It’s on an operatic scale, almost, it’s very mysterious. It’s very clear what’s happening but there are also layers behind it—rather like the Bene Gesserit.”
— Javier Bardem —
Stilgar
The brave, warrior people of the Deep Desert prepare to rise up against the forces of darkness corrupting their home world.
A leader of the mysterious tribal peoples of Dune known as the Fremen, Stilgar will do anything to protect the lives and cultural identity of his people. He is revered by his tribe as a man of wisdom born of a deep symbiotic relationship with the wilds of Dune; a primal survivor who has made the most dangerous planet in the universe his home. With the new leader of House Atreides entrenched with the Fremen and the Harkonnen threat still looming over Arrakis, the sage warrior works to help Paul evolve into the leader he is destined to be.
On coming back for “Dune: Part Two”…
“Returning to the world of Dune was a pleasure, a joy, a gift and a great adventure because this film is bigger, wider, deeper than the first and it’s always amazing to be near Denis Villeneuve!”
On his character, Stilgar’s, transformation in the new film…
“The character is very complex now and I love to work with that complexity. Stilgar is really fighting for the fate of his people. He’s a true believer in his religion and he really expects the Messiah to come and help him to bring them all to a better place. It’s the last chance the Fremen have to be free and that’s why Stilgar puts all his hope and faith in Paul. This is not a belief shared by the young generation, including Chani. They want someone from the Fremen to be the one who liberates them, and that’s one element of the conflict in this film. I liked very much that conflict between the beliefs of the young people and those of the old.”
On the story’s relevance to today’s world…
“Frank Herbert was very ahead of his time with the climate issues, and he wrote about what is actually going on today in terms of climate change. Arrakis is happening today, and it’s very scary to get into the stillsuit, be out in the desert and realize that there are millions of people living in those conditions already now. We are creating a fiction that is so close to reality and will be even more in the future if we don’t do something real about it. It’s very important that this story is being told in a way that will reach a very wide audience.”
On reuniting with Timothée Chalamet for “Dune: Part Two,” and his observations on Chalamet’s performance…
“I could see the difference in Timothée, he owned the role in a different way, which is beautiful because that’s what the movie’s about, that coming-of-age journey of the character of Paul. In the first film he was introduced to this new world and in ‘Dune: Part Two’ he has to own that world. As an actor, Timothée’s so elastic and flexible and he can jump from drama to comedy to death to light in a second, and it’s beautiful to see that in him. Being so young, he brought a great energy to the set and that really put everyone in one of the greatest moods.”
On working with Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica again…
“Lady Jessica is going through the process of becoming a Reverend Mother, which is the sum of all the beliefs in the Fremen culture. And it means she has to let her son go in order for him to fulfill his destiny. It’s a beautiful story about a mother and a son at the time they have to separate from each other because there’s something bigger and stronger that has to happen. Rebecca is a fantastic actress, and she brought a depth and a complexity to the role in the most beautiful way. She’s also very funny and was very easy to work with.”
On the challenge of learning the Fremen language, Chakobsa…
“I love it because it gives you the freedom to really experiment and bring the message that you want to get across through words that you don’t know anything about, that don’t make any sense to you. It’s kind of improvising something with strange sounds that doesn’t relate to anything that you can imagine. But it’s an acting exercise. There’s a lot of Chakobsa in this movie, as it should be, and I think it’s very brave that Denis Villeneuve gives the chance to really talk about the Fremen culture and the Fremen language and gives them the time to express themselves.”
On collaborating with Denis Villeneuve again for this film…
“Denis is wonderfully caring and a beautifully creative person. I am so grateful he gave me the chance to be part of his adventure. It really felt like doing an independent movie: there was such a spirit of experimenting, of trying new things. Denis was there to make sure that you were creating freely with pleasure and with joy.”
In Conversation with the Producers
Mary Parent · Cale Boyter · Patrick McCormick · Tanya Lapointe
On bringing the next chapter of “Dune” to the screen in “Dune: Part Two”…
MP: “‘Dune: Part Two’ picks right up after ‘Part One,’ although Denis has been very smart about how we approached the film in that, if you’ve seen the first film, of course it picks right up where we left off, but if you haven’t seen the first film, it’s still a very accessible story. Certainly there are layers that you will appreciate having seen in the first film, but if you haven’t, ‘Part Two’ works beautifully on its own.”
CB: “This film has definitely been a bit of a dream. We made the first movie with the intention of making ‘Part Two,’ not having any guarantees, just taking a giant swing at a movie, hoping it would pay off. And it did. So, to be here is a huge blessing for everyone involved. ‘Dune: Part Two’ has a unique vibe where it has science fiction, fantasy and thriller at the same time, that’s its superpower. If we did our jobs, the audience will be on the edge of their seat. It will be an epic ride which will be unique in offering something beautiful, violent, intriguing, and emotional.”
TL: “I was thrilled to come back to work on ‘Part Two,’ because ‘Part One’ had been such an exciting experience. I thought that I was ready for it, because I’d worked on the first film, but it was nothing like the first one. It was just as memorable, but it was a bigger movie, and we only realized it as we were making it that the scale, the scope, were so much bigger. I was definitely up for the challenge, and it ended up exceeding all expectations.”
PM: “As producers, I think we always feel good when we’re solving problems, but in many cases, thanks to the work of the first film, the high standards they set and followed, these problems were solved; they wrestled with a lot of exposition and information in ‘Dune’ to get people engaged in the story, and I think the opposition of different characters and factions was clearly outlined.
So, getting right into this one, you were able to recreate moments of conflict and confrontation and get to it very quickly in a really exciting way. For me, joining the ‘Dune’ world on ‘Part Two’ has been a privilege, and so it’s really a matter of attacking what you want to achieve, and building a game plan to make it, eliminate any of the obstacles that might be in your way. For me, that was the challenge and that’s where the gratification comes.”
On where Paul Atreides’ journey takes him…
MP: “The film is very much about love, about destiny, about choices, and I think for Paul in particular it’s coming to terms with who he is versus who he wants to be. There’s a beautiful line in the film when Jessica says to him, ‘Your father didn’t believe in revenge.’ But revenge is very much what’s top of mind for him.
And from the beginning of the film we see him growing, falling in love with Chani, believing in what the Fremen stand for, and ultimately there’s a very emotional moment where he is being confronted with a terrible choice he must make for the greater good, although some people might view it as him also being a bit infected by power. So much of the film is about power dynamics. I think Chani is probably the only character who’s pure in that sense, who’s not driven by power. She’s very much the voice of reason and has a much more evolved world view.”
TL: “‘Dune Part Two’ is a deep dive into the Fremen culture; we’re discovering the lifestyle, the technology, the politics and the beliefs, and we’re entering their world with Paul and Jessica. It’s through their perspective that we discover the exhilarating world of sandworm riding, and a community in which everyone fights the enemy for a greater cause.”
CB: “In order for this concept to work, you really have to feel the boy becoming a man, especially in order for the pathos to work without it feeling forced. The first movie was the beginning of that trajectory and ‘Part Two’ is when we see him arc into something that he probably never thought he could become. Timothée is such a sophisticated, subtle actor, and Paul has to come across on screen as a character that you are completely moved by spiritually and psychologically, so you want to follow him, the only man who can protect us. And Timothée succeeds in getting that across.”
On Chani’s expanded role in the film…
CB: “Chani becomes the lens through which we are experiencing Paul, so we’re going to take the audience further into her perspective, which is a beautiful moment of transition in this movie. It was designed that way as Denis was building the script. I remember when he came up with that idea, I felt great, we’d hit it. It was a lot of fun watching him fill that out and I think audiences will agree.”
MP: “Chani, as I said, is one of the strongest and one of the purest characters. She’s the only character who really isn’t, shall we say, infected by power, and she very much represents that the Fremen way of life is one of everyone being treated equally. One with the planet, one with the environment. She’s a warrior but not looking to seek out war, just to defend Arrakis and the Fremen from the Harkonnens. Chani also believes in the Fremen themselves, not in the Bene Gesserit beliefs that Stilgar absolutely believes. Unlike her elder, Chani believes that the savior of the Fremen will be the Fremen, not an outside force that comes in to save them.”
On the talented ensemble cast…
MP: “I very much believe it starts from the top down, so that is Denis and the tone that he establishes on set, and his total commitment. It just inspires everybody. We’re very lucky. It’s a very unique group of actors who have come together to make this film, and it does feel like a family. And that includes new family members who joined—Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken, Léa Seydoux and more. Everyone is dedicated and I can say that for me personally, producing these films has been among the best experiences I’ve ever had in my entire career.”
CB: “The casting of Dune was unbelievable. It was a high mark to hit, and we definitely felt that as we embarked on ‘Part Two.’ We took key roles that the book developed into the architecture throughout the entire thread of the movie, and we backloaded that into ‘Part Two,’ so there were huge challenges, but the challenges also allowed us to create new casting opportunities that are really quite wonderful. It’s a beautiful collection of actors, and watching all these actors working together was remarkable.”
On the breathtaking locations…
PM: “I don’t know what other word to use to describe the thrill of being in those locations for ‘Dune: Part Two.’ In Jordan, I felt like every one of those rock formations was its own sort of freestanding work of art, sculpted by nature, rivalling Medieval cathedrals or Renaissance cathedrals throughout Europe. We were in a location called uh, Al Siq near Wadi Araba, which is a little further away than our normal stomping grounds, which has been Wadi Rum, and it’s yet another astounding location with rock formations and a canyon that are just awe-inspiring. Photogenic and powerful. That’s all I could think. I felt so blessed to be there, really.”
TL: “We spent just a few days in Italy at the very beginning of the shoot for a very specific location called the Brion Sanctuary. It’s an architectural marvel designed by Carlo Scarpa. It’s absolutely stunning and unique. It was the inspiration for most of the Caladan architecture in the first film, but we never shot there. For the second film, Patrice Vermette reached out to the Brion family and asked, ‘Would it be possible to film on location?’ They had always said no—no other film had shot there before—but the Brion family happened to have read Dune by Frank Herbert, and had loved the film directed by Denis Villeneuve, and they allowed us to film within this location.
So, when you see Reverend Mother Mohiam and Princess Irulan walking through gardens, that’s Brion Sanctuary. The only thing we changed was adding some furniture to create Princess Irulan’s office. Otherwise, it was so beautiful, there was nothing to do. We even see the lily pads in the koi pond, which we captured. It was a good way to start the shoot, with Charlotte Rampling, Florence Pugh and Léa Seydoux in this intimate setting to kick us off.”
PM: “Because each of our locations offered such incredible photographic opportunities, the decision about optimizing a specific location for a specific part of a scene could be made. I’ve never been on a film where a single sequence has been divided into so many parts because everybody wanted to take maximum advantage of these spectacular locations, and rock formations and where the sun was, how their features are really enhanced with the sun being in the perfect part of the sky at that particular moment. It was an incredible puzzle for the production team to put together and they were very successful at it.”
On the hugely anticipated sandworm riding sequence…
TL: “On ‘Part One,’ I was an executive producer, and when we were promoting the film, Mary Parent said, ‘Tanya, on the next one, you’ll be a producer.’ It was a huge honor, and a huge responsibility, which I took to heart. Then when we started prepping the film, someone suggested that I also direct Second Unit because I knew this world and Denis’ style so profoundly. It came as a surprise, but when we got into the process, it seemed like the most natural thing to do. For me, it was the best experience in my life, and it was exhilarating to be working creatively in this way with Denis.
So, for the sandworm riding—obviously no one has actually ridden a sandworm ever—one of the challenges Denis had to surmount was developing the techniques the Fremen would use to harness the power of these desert beasts. The ‘worm unit,’ as we called it, worked for two months in Budapest, and then went to UAE, where we shot in the desert with the real sand dunes. First, we had Paul Atreides hanging from a sandworm set piece.
Then we moved to a gimble, where we were able to rotate it, incline it and, in playing with the elements, we were able to create the feeling of danger involved in harnessing a sandworm for the first time, which is the case of our hero in the film. Essentially, it required creating the sense of adrenaline. What was great is that we, the crew, could feel it when we were getting it right. And because we were feeling the exhilaration, we knew it had the potential of making audiences feel that way, too.”
On Denis Villeneuve’s sandworm riding “school”…
TL: “All the actors who do sandworm riding on the film went to the ‘Denis Villeneuve Sandworm Riding School,’ because no one was in a better position to teach sandworm riding than he was. He grew up with the books, he knew what it needed to look like and therefore, he would demonstrate how to ride a sandworm, holding the maker hooks, which are used as reigns. The hands had to be just right, not too far apart, not too close; he knew the exact position and I found that to be quite inspiring actually.”
On Denis Villeneuve as the definitive director for these films…
MP: “It’s hard to imagine anybody else directing this movie. This film needs to work on so many different levels, both on an intimate character level as well as on a giant, epic, made-for-the-big-screen level. We shot the entire film for IMAX, and I think there’s very few filmmakers who are able to work on both levels as effortlessly as Denis is able to. He’s also a master world builder; he has a way of making a world that is very foreign feel incredibly relatable and very real.
So much of that is done in camera, which is very important to Denis, and the level of detail, whether it’s the costumes, the set design, everything, all of those details come together to form something that feels organic and real. I think Denis’ done a beautiful job of melding genres, and what I mean by that is this is very much a gritty war film, while at the same time an epic adventure film, while at the same time an intense, Shakespearean power play film, and a love story. The emotionality and the intensity of the film is incredible, and he blends it so beautifully together.”
TL: “I think no one else could have directed the ‘Dune’ movies because Denis’ vision is so precise. From ‘Part One’ to ‘Part Two,’ he knew exactly what he wanted to do. He knew where he needed to be respectful of the book and where he could take creative liberties, while still respecting the essence of Frank Herbet’s original ideas. We’ve been living in the ‘Dune’ world for five years. Not a day has gone by that we haven’t spoken about ‘Dune’ or that it hasn’t been on our minds. It’s been a complete immersion into this world, but I think that for Denis, it’s been an even longer trajectory, because he read the book 40 years ago. He’s had these images brewing in his mind for a very long time, so it’s so exciting that we’re able to bring his vision to the screen.”
On the brilliant artists who created the world of “Dune: Part Two”…
PM: “It was amazing to see how much work Greig Fraser put into planning his course, doing all these sun studies and doing photogrammetry of the locations. He had all these elaborate locations built into a software system that allowed him to know how the light was hitting at different times of day, so he could make a very specific plan. And I’m looking at this thing and I’m saying, ‘How are all these pieces going to fit together in this puzzle?’ And they managed it beautifully, it was astounding.
But of course these artists are the best. There’s a high level of confidence in terms of what they want to achieve, so rarely is it necessary to debate how you might approach something, because they know. They’ve each established a very, very high bar for themselves and both ‘Dune’ and now ‘Dune: Part Two’ are incredible achievements, visually and every other way.”
MP: “We’ve never seen the entire world laid out like this. Again, we’re seeing parts of Arrakis we’ve never been on. We’re in the world of the Fremen. We’re in the world of the Emperor. We are now seeing Giedi Prime on levels that we haven’t seen before. Denis created battle sequences that we’ve never seen before. We have new ornithopters, we have new weaponry. And we’ve never seen battle with sandworms before, but now we can. And on top of the craft, it’s very unique and it’s very special, the way that everybody gets along and respects one another, and I think also inspires each other to do their best work.”
CB: “It was a dream watching this team rally behind Denis’s vision. Denis challenged everyone to reach for something bigger. Everyone on the core crafts team, on both cast and crew, understood that. And you could see it because they’d do anything to help Denis get what he wanted. And we didn’t make it easy on the actors, but they were so gracious and accommodating.”
TL: “It was essential to have the same creative team come back on ‘Part Two,’ not only because they’ve become friends, but because we had developed a shorthand. This was crucial because we ended up having a shorter prep period. Let’s remember that ‘Dune’ was in a privileged position of being nominated for ten Academy Awards, and therefore all the creatives were promoting the film right up until the Oscars in March—while we were also prepping the second film. So, we had a little bit of time taken away from us, in a sense, because we had this great run on ‘Part One.’”
Notes from Jon Spaihts
Writer
On how you approached the script for “Dune: Part Two”…
“In ‘Dune: Part One,’ Paul Atreides loses the only world he knows: Caladan, and the courtly society of the Great Houses. In ‘Dune: Part Two,’ Paul gains a new world—the desert of Arrakis, where he must survive, prove himself, and find a way to belong. He risks his life to make common cause with the Fremen, the powerful people of the desert that he deeply admires. ‘Part One’ was a terrible crucible in which Paul came of age. In ‘Part Two,’ Paul must become a man in the eyes of the Fremen. Only then can he take control of his destiny, charting a course through the desert toward revenge.”
On why it was important to explore Chani’s story in this film, both as a young Fremen warrior and her relationship with Paul…
“Frank Herbert wanted Dune to serve as a cautionary tale about imperialism and the allure of ‘saviors.’ Denis and I wanted to make sure this message rang out clearly in the film. In the novel, much of the Fremen point of view lives in the interior monologues of various characters. We needed to pull those arguments into the action. That meant elevating Chani in the latter chapters of the story, and giving her voice greater power.
Chani stands for Fremen freedom—both freedom from colonial rule, and freedom from the dictates of prophecy. She believes in the Fremen people above all. In ‘Dune: Part Two,’ we see not only that Chani loves Paul, but that she is a leader of equal force and vision.”
On getting to bring in Feyd-Rautha, the Emperor and Princess Irulan, and expand the Bene Gesserit stories, including Lady Jessica’s journey…
“The conflict on Arrakis is the focal point of a galactic game—and the prize of that game is control of the Imperium, and the throne of the Emperor himself. In ‘Part One,’ the opening moves of this game brought ruin on House Atreides. In ‘Part Two,’ other players will enter the field: Feyd-Rautha, the Baron Harkonnen’s nephew and Paul’s cruel rival, and Princess Irulan, the Emperor’s daughter and a key to the ultimate power play.
It’s a game of savagery and cunning in which the future of an empire can hang on the point of a knife. As the Great Houses vie for political power, Paul’s mother Jessica strives to fulfill an ancient prophecy. As a Sister of the Bene Gesserit order, she hopes to bring forth the One they call the Kwisatz Haderach—the prophet who will see all futures. A thousand years of careful Bene Gesserit planning all come down to the choices Jessica must make. And the fate of the Imperium, the Fremen people, and the Bene Gesserit order all come together in the person of her son, Paul.”
On taking inspiration from the incredible visuals in the first film to expand the worlds we see in “Dune: Part Two”…
“World-building is the great challenge of elevated science fiction. In ‘Dune: Part One,’ an incredible team of artists led by Denis Villeneuve realized one of the most breathtaking and believable universes in the history of sci-fi film. In writing ‘Part Two,’ we had the incredible luxury of writing for a world we had already seen, and experienced viscerally. We could practically taste the sand on the wind.
It made it easier to breathe life into every scene. It also challenged us to raise the bar—taking the audience to new places not yet seen, and reaching for a scale of spectacle that would match or surpass the first film. An exhilarating process.”
On working with Denis Villeneuve…
“Denis is one of the great living filmmakers. It’s an honor and a delight to work with him. And with all his prodigious talents, he is unfailingly humble, collaborative, kind, and creatively fearless. It leads to the best sort of artistic process. He surrounds himself with creatives he trusts, and he listens to them, giving them space to express their vision. At the same time, he is certain of his course: a consistent visionary. The sense of safety that provides makes it easier for everyone to take creative leaps.”
Perspectives: the Artisans
— Greig Fraser —
Director of Photography
On learning he’d be returning to Arrakis and beyond for “Dune: Part Two”…
“‘Part One’ was a bit of a dream, one of those experiences you don’t often get to have, so when we were told we were going back for ‘Part Two’ with pretty much the same team, it was a bit of a dream come true. We got to do it again, which is a very rare experience in this industry. Of course, having success on the first film meant we could be a little bolder, so we decided that ‘Part Two’ needed to begin in a very bold way, and progress in a bolder way.
So, we chose lighting and camera techniques that were a little left of center, that maybe we wouldn’t have chosen the first time. For example, we chose to start this film in the middle of an eclipse. The story picks up pretty much straight after we left it, assume two, three hours have passed, and Paul and Jessica and the Fremen are being hunted by the Harkonnen during an eclipse on Arrakis, which sort of gives it a very eerie, red-orange tone.”
On choosing the color palette for this film…
“Having a base for this world allowed us to think quite out of the box when it came to color palette. Starting with the eclipse, which we hadn’t seen before in ‘Part One,’ gave us the ability to start playing with color tones. We used an infrared filter, which actually takes away visible light from the camera and takes away a lot of the visible tones that the camera sees, so it doesn’t feel quite of this world.”
On the cameras he opted for on this film…
“We used a couple of different cameras—the Alexa LF Mini, the Alexa 65. We knew that we were going to go large format on this film, that the whole film we were going for IMAX, so by using the full frame Alexas we were able to capture the biggest image possible, and show this world as big as we could. The success of the IMAX sequences in ‘Part One,’ the power of that format and what happens to the audience when they sit in a cinema on a scale like that made Denis and I keen early on to shoot the entire film for IMAX in an IMAX ratio.”
On creating a completely different visual for the Harkonnen home planet, Giedi Prime…
“Denis had said to me early on that we need the outside of Giedi Prime during the day to feel different to Arrakis, it’s got to feel different to every other exterior location we’ve been. One thing we discussed was this idea of anti-light. Not a black hole of light, but something where light doesn’t exist the way we know it. So, we used a technique that I’ve used for visual effects, which is using infrared on the sensor of the Alexa LF. Effectively, we put a visible light cut filter in front of the lens, which means the camera can’t see any visible light, and we take out the infrared cut filter from the camera, so all the camera sees is infrared. This became the exterior light for Giedi Prime.”
On collaborating again with production designer Patrice Vermette…
“Patrice Vermette happens to be one of the most talented humans I’ve ever met. What comes out of his mind is a little bit scary, because he’s got this kind of innate ability to make something extraordinary. His designs were beyond any other design, even from ‘Part One,’ and I recall being completely blown away by his designs and the execution of them then. On ‘Part Two?’ Unbelievable. It was a pinch-yourself type experience as a DP, because being able to be on those sets and to light those sets was a dream come true.”
On lighting the Fremen sets…
“It was funny lighting the Fremen hidden caves because they do have glow globes, but we found that when you use those too much, it feels a little bit romantic and pretty. So, the construct that we came up with was that there are slits in the rock, places that light can come in, similar to the Atreides’ residence in ‘Part One’ where all the windows had long, narrow slits that allowed just the semblance of light through, but didn’t allow the wind or the sandstorms to come in.
For the Fremen caves, it was quite a challenge, because you want a set that’s 300 feet high, but there isn’t a space that would allow us to have shot that way. So, with our lighting crew, we came up with ways to create slashes of light but have soft illumination on the floor that didn’t feel like it was spot-lit. It’s one thing to create pools of light, but in this case we had to light complete row with soft light. It took a lot of testing and R&D to do that.”
On creating the light from the sun on the harsh planet of Arrakis…
“To create our sun, our main light source was the Creamsource Vortex. Creamsource had just come out with the Vortex8, which is a very punchy light, but quite small in form factor. We were fortunate enough to get quite a few of them, so we could effectively move those from set to set and also create big sun sources and a soft sun source.”
— Patrice Vermette —
Production Designer
On the more ambitious nature of this new chapter…
“‘Dune: Part Two’ is bigger than ‘Part One,’ with 40 percent more sets. We challenged each other all the time throughout the making of the film. We all deeply love Denis, and we were there to support his vision.”
On the process of working with Denis Villeneuve to determine the look of the film…
“We thought of ‘The Godfather Part Two’ and ‘The Empire Strikes Back,’ because for a franchise to survive it can’t just serve up the same recipe, you have to go beyond what you did before. ‘Part Two’ had to be bigger and better and built on the foundations of what we had learned and experienced on ‘Dune.’”
On drawing on the look and the sets he designed for the first film…
“Our bible, which is a book of illustrations and photographs from our work on ‘Dune,’ was an invaluable reference point for me as I devised the world of ‘Dune: Part Two.’ One of the first things we did again was to build models of the new sets to help all the other departments, most especially Greig Fraser and the lighting department.”
On devising a color palette for the new film…
“I found color inspiration in some unusual places. For the Harkonnen planet, Giedi Prime, I was inspired by septic tanks because they have the morals and ethics of the sewer, so for the look of their surroundings I used inky black plastic with the occasional silver highlight. Denis and Greig decided to use infrared cameras to bring the Giedi Prime atmosphere to life, so for me that meant that black would sometimes become white on film and vice versa, which I had to account for. For the Imperium, a totally different environment from anything else in the film, I used wood as the material, and also the grays of cement. On Arrakis the dominant colors are the beiges, yellows, ochres and pinks of the dominant material, sand.”
On returning to his artistic inspiration, Carlo Scarpa—literally—for the Emperor’s Imperial Garden…
“Carlo Scarpa for me is a god. He was extremely influential on the design of ‘Part One.’ We were looking for an imperial garden for this movie. I showed Denis my reference boards and when he saw Brion Cemetery, he said ‘That’s kind of out of this world, it’s special. Let’s try to shoot there.’ It had never been used as a film set before; the Brion family turned down ‘Star Wars!’ But, when Brion’s son learned that it was for ‘Dune: Part Two,’ he met us and gave the okay. That was quite special—it’s the first location I have visited where I actually cried walking in there. I met Carlo Scarpa’s son, Tobias, and they all recognized the influence of Scarpa in ‘Dune,’ so it all made sense.”
On having to select new locations within familiar territory in order to expand the world of ‘Dune’ in the new film…
“In Jordan, we loved Wadi Rum from the first film, but Denis and I went in search of different places, we wanted different points of view, different scopes, different configurations. Also, there had been massive rainfall in 2020 in the desert, so there was a lot of greenery in the areas we used previously, and obviously there is no green on Arrakis!”
On the challenges of the wind traps needed for filming in Wadi Rum…
“A rock formation in beautiful Wadi Rum in Jordan was a location that was chosen for the wind-traps. It’s a technology that already exists, the nets capture the humidity in the atmosphere through the wind, and then create drops of water that trickle down to the underbelly of the traps. They were built in Budapest and shipped by helicopter because they weigh 400 kilos each. Our concept artist designed them from the reference I gave of a spider, a spider that was doing its own net, and the underbelly of the trap is the belly of a spider.”
On the Fremen interior environments…
“As though writing on the wall, the Fremen tell their story, their history. Then, the idea of having a lot of sand in the Sietch, because it’s a culture that is slowly being buried, that is the metaphor of that set. There was also the Cave of Birds, which is basically a bone harmonica, which was my inspiration, and inside it’s just like fingerprints, which is another way to say identity, who these people are, giant fingerprints.”
On creating the Maker’s Temple and the Cistern of Souls…
“The Maker’s Temple is basically two circles, which create a figure eight, the symbol of eternity. Two concentric circles with steps. The sand is death. The water is life. Paul is cutting between the two worlds when he drinks the water of life. What’s important to understand with the Cistern of Souls is that the Fremen, they’ve been collecting the water from the dead for thousands of years. It was essential to show the significance of it and the devotion, that they’ll never stop. The dead have participated in the survival of the dream of what the Fremen want, which is a green planet Arrakis.”
On turning an exhibition hall into a soundstage…
“The story of ‘Dune’ and especially now ‘Dune: Part Two’ is bigger than life, so the sets needed to reflect that. We had a soundstage that is not a soundstage, it’s called Hungexpo and it’s an exhibition hall in Budapest. It has 103,000 square feet and is like 45-feet high, which was brilliant for us, plus a 58,000 square foot space there. It gave us the opportunity to build sets to our scale for Giedi Prime and the Imperial tent and a few other sets. And even some stuff was too big to fit that, but we learned tricks from ‘Part One’ to go beyond the physical space!”
On designing the sandworms…
“The skin of the sandworm is based on dry lakes, how that looks like scales when the clay’s all dried up. Conceptually I think it works well, those worm skins. We designed it for ‘Part One’ and it worked well, so we have the same look of course in ‘Part Two.’”
On the genius of VFX supervisor Paul Lambert…
“What I like about Paul Lambert is that he always figures out a way to make everything happen. He’s a genius, a mad scientist!”
On collaborating with Villeneuve and the other heads of department…
“We are a team of perfectionists and the way we collaborate is quite unique, because we’re friends, we respect each other, we respect each other’s work. I think that shows on the screen. It all comes from Denis. Nobody tried to do a guitar solo here; everybody followed a very straight line, and I think that’s part of the key to the success of the visuals of this movie.”
— Joe Walker —
Editor
On slowly digging into “Dune: Part Two”…
“It was a long time before I read the script for ‘Part Two,’ and Denis talked to me sort of in coded fashion about what it was going to involve. Then I read the script, and I was blown away by it, the tremendous ambition of it. It’s a huge movie, bigger than ‘Part One’ in so many ways, a very huge cast, of course, and also very big action sequences. So, a lot of our conversations were about aiming for a faster pace—not necessarily in the cut, but the way that it was shot. Pace, I think, is decided on set to a degree, so we had a lot of conversations about how he was going to cover the action.
He was preparing me for something that was more intense in many ways, not just in terms of the amount of action and those very ambitious action sequences, but also the intensity of performance in the way it was shot. It’s generally closer, more dynamic, we’re closer to the characters and we get to enjoy them at greater length.”
On how Denis Villeneuve’s style suits the sci-fi genre…
“Denis has had over 30 years to dream of this particular movie, so the amount of preparation Denis makes is formidable. And that’s not to say that being well prepared he doesn’t embrace many of the changes that come along. There are some sequences that, for example, went together and stayed as they were throughout the whole process, and other sequences where we changed everything multiple times. He’ll work on the things, he’ll let things remain, he won’t fuss with things that are already working.
One of the examples of that is how he developed the character of Feyd-Rautha. That, to me, was a real shock and a surprise. I saw Austin on set at one point, and he’s completely different to anything you’ve seen before. The way he commands a room and his demeanor, he’s a venal-looking vampire. And I think they developed a lot together. Denis came in with a lot of ideas, but they created something together that’s quite special.”
On the importance of being present during production…
“I’m there on set at times, when I really have to be, but I’m around on location. It’s good to be available to advise Denis if I think there’s anything missing, though that’s rare, or to show him the progress of the cut as it happens. There were many times when he’d come over [to the edit suite] because we had a very compressed schedule for a film of this scale, so we had to turn over VFX shots straight away. And I needed to be around him to be able to swap and share thoughts, so that we could feed the beast.”
On editing those epic battles in “Dune: Part Two”…
“The thing about cutting the battle sequences in this film is that you’re often working with a strong baseline of the performances, because Denis’ action sequences, like the best of them, are driven by character, there’s a point to them, it’s not just a chase. And as much as they can be, these scenes are shot practically, everything is there. When everybody’s running underneath the harvester, that’s a build, it’s not all VFX. But in many cases an ornithopter is a helicopter that was shot in place of the ornithopter, and that might’ve been shot in September when the rest of the scene was shot in July. The sandworm riding sequence was shot over three months. So, it’s a jigsaw puzzle. You have to kind of cut it with your best intention of how it’s going to turn out.”
On getting to enjoy the expansion of performances from “Dune” in this film…
“One of the frustrations of ‘Part One’ is that you barely meet Chani and Stilgar! But Chani has a wonderfully expanded role in ‘Part Two,’ and there’s a lot more time spent with Stilgar, who’s phenomenal, and Javier Bardem gave us something I wasn’t truly expecting, which is some very comedic touches in his conversation, often made so by the way Timothée reacts to Javier’s lines. There was delicious material, and these lighter moments only help you dive deeper into those characters.”
On honing the relationship between Paul and Chani…
“The chemistry between Paul and Chani is strong, and in the performances, I had all this amazing material. So, in fact, there was a big effort in the cutting room to get the pacing of their relationship just right and to respect both characters. The thing that really elevated some of their more intimate moments was working with Hans Zimmer and finding a musical way of conveying this love theme.”
On the key to film editing…
“Film editing is often a thing that, if it’s working, you probably won’t notice what I’ve done. I’m hoping you won’t notice what I’ve done! And a lot of my main preoccupation is story, so even though there’s an exciting fight between Feyd and Lanville in the gladiator arena, the big beat we’re trying to get across is that this is the rise of a big, dark figure in the story, and that he’s a danger. He’s violent, a psychopath unchained, and the Baron is testing him. The biggest influence editing can have is a sense of the effectiveness of the story, so that the story points land.”
— Paul Lambert —
Visual Effects Supervisor
On returning to the world of “Dune” for “Dune: Part Two”…
“It was super exciting to be back for ‘Part Two’ because I like working with Denis, it’s always such an amazing, collaborative experience. Whatever Denis would be doing, I would jump at the chance, but to come back to ‘Dune’ and the world we built after the great success of the first movie is amazing. We always knew that ‘Part Two’ was going to have a lot more action, was going to be a visceral event, so having the ability to work on it and work with him again was absolutely phenomenal. I also knew it was going to be a huge challenge. The idea was to keep the same aesthetic, the same principles we learned on ‘Dune One,’ and apply them to ‘Dune Two,’ but ramp up everything.”
On initial thoughts and plans for bringing Denis Villeneuve’s dream of sandworm riding to the screen…
“Denis is very conscious of what works in VFX and what doesn’t. One of our first Zoom calls with the crew prior to going to Budapest was to talk about how we were going to do the worm riding sequence, because Denis had this amazing pitch for how he wanted it to work. Basically, a Fremen would put a thumper down into the top of a dune. And the worm would come for the thumper and the dune would collapse. And the idea is that the Fremen is on top of the collapsing dune, and that’s how they get onto a worm. There were a lot of discussions as to just how we were going to pull that amazing visual off, and one of the challenges for us to be able to come up with was the visual of Paul running onto a worm, with Chani and the other Fremen watching.
It involved rebuilding part of the top of the sand dune in another location, where we could control things and have cranes, and we put three tubes inside the dune, which would be pulled by industrial tractors. We’d have a stuntperson—Lorenz Hideyoshi, in this case, Timothée’s stunt double—attached to a safety wire and he would run. The tubes would pull out. The sand would collapse, and Lorenz would fall down the top of the dune into the swirling dust below, kicking up sand. We had to get the timing right, the camera had to follow, and so on.
It took some practice runs over a few days because the reset was quite long, but it worked out really well! Then my team extended it out in CG using plates and aerial photography, making you feel like Paul is a lot higher up, and then of course adding the CG worm. For the actual ride, we have him on a gimble, so we can change the angle of the platform, surrounded by a huge sand-colored enclosure that would get lit by the sun and bounce strong sand-colored light onto Paul. We shot aerial photography that would be the surrounding landscape, while always blasting a lot of sand onto Paul. When all combined, it feels like Paul is riding on a worm in the desert!”
On specific rules to follow for the best VFX results…
“I collaborate with all the other heads of department so that we can plan and execute together, and there are a couple of ‘rules’ I like to enforce, such as I don’t want to have to try to change the lighting or the performance in post. It’s very expensive and it doesn’t always work. But with Greig’s team and Patrice and Denis’ work with the actors, that doesn’t really happen. If I express to Denis that a particular shot that comes up could be quite tricky to pull off in post, he will change the shot, because he wants it to look real, he doesn’t ever want something that will take the audience out of the movie, out of this amazing world he’s immersed them in.”
On working with nature…
“Denis has got this saying, that nature supersedes the storyboards, supersedes previz, which means that, even though you know what to expect on a location, if he feels something about the shot should be changed to suit the environment, things will change. It’s a very organic process, but it can be terrifying in my world! But, it’s also a buzz, too, to have to think on your feet and adapt.”
On turning all those brown (or green, or hazel) eyes blue…
“We have a multitude of different techniques we used in this film, one of those being that because we had a lot more Fremen characters, we have a lot of eyes to make into that beautiful blue, and for much more of the film than in the first one, over a thousand shots. We came up with a different technique, using what we’d learned before from the hundreds of blue eye shots in the first movie and creating a machine learning model, an algorithm trained from those ‘Dune’ shots to find human eyes in an image, which would then give us a matte for the different parts of the eye.
We then used this multi-part matte to tint the eyes blue. Some worked better than others, those others we did by hand. It actually went full circle sometimes, in that we had to take out some of the blue eyes that got generated in the non-Freman characters, rather than add them, as the algorithm would just find eyes, whether they were Freman, Harkonnen or Sardaukar! But, it was a brand new technique, getting that done.”
On enhancing the action…
“We have massive battle scenes with thousands of Fremen, Harkonnen and Sardaukar, so we expand from what is captured in camera. We have spice again, of course. And of course we have ornithopters flying, and it was the same approach, adding wings, using helicopters, having additional blowing sand to expand the range of its impact on the ground. Although, when we have the ornithopter on the ground, we actually built a brand new one, a Harkonnen ornithopter, which is slightly different in shape to the ones in ‘Part One.’”
On his partnership with his fellow heads of department…
“The amazing thing about working with Patrice Vermette is that he will create a book of concepts, so you’ll have all the visuals in the movie defined and signed off by Denis already, before day one of filming. That’s rare, because usually a concept is a springboard for other ideas, you’re working with the facilities, telling them that if you match the concepts you’ll get a final, and then they don’t match. You go around in a circle. But because Denis has visualized the movie and Patrice has designed for Denis’ vision, you have a final.
You know what the background is, what Greig is doing with the lighting and the camera, so that allows everything to be done in a way that will help me make it believable in visual effects. There isn’t a world where we just create something from nothing, they’re always grounded by something at the beginning of that sequence, which is grounded in reality, which we then augment, extend out, and then always, always finish with something practical as well, so you don’t get taken out of the movie you’re there to see.”
— Jacqueline West —
Costume Designer
On designing for an expanded world in “Dune: Part Two”…
“We see a lot more of Giedi Prime and Arrakis than in ‘Dune,’ and are introduced to the Imperial world for the first time. That meant creating looks for a whole new set of groups. We also had to come up with new costumes for the Bene Gesserits, as well as the southern Reverend Mothers, and a new color palette for the whole world of the Sietch.”
On the Sietch designs she created…
“Sietch clothing is characterized by simple organic fabrics fashioned into loose outfits designed for practicality. They’re almost like pajamas, so the Fremen can quickly take them off and put on a stillsuit. It was a big task, made even more tricky because we start in the northern Fremen world and then go to the south, so it was a question of how to decide on two color palettes and different materials. Within the Sietch there are the water masters, elders, nuns, and we had to costume them all, so it was a massive task.”
On her inspiration for the southern Reverend Mothers of the Fremen…
“I was inspired by Egyptian art, so the clothes of the southern Reverend Mothers could be very ornate, in a warm, sandy, organic color palette, with lots of light olive greens, silver and gold, in stark contrast to the Bene Gesserit in the North who are all in black. Those sandy tones carry through all the southern Sietch costumes, blending in with the surrounding environment. Everything for the southern Reverend Mothers, from their jewelry to their headpieces, was made from scratch. The northern Sietch look is a much darker, earthier color palette.”
On her wide and varied influences for the film.
“I took inspiration from a variety of things, from ancient eastern art, medieval painting and Japanese art and culture to the fashion of 1930s fascist Italy.”
On designing for the black Picador characters featured in the Feyd-Rautha arena fight…
“I love the look of the Spanish bullfighters. Denis gave me a concept drawing of something that looked like a stick figure, and we took it from there and created an extreme matador-shaped hat and a black costume that is stick-like. We got very thin, elongated, very slender Picadors.”
On expanding Chani’s look beyond the stillsuit from “Dune: Part One”…
“In addition to the stillsuit and her Sietch clothing, Chani needed dresses. We put her in these fabulous caftans. We got a little taste of it in ‘Dune,’ when she wears the white dress in Paul’s vision, and I expanded on that here. She has some beautiful dresses made of raw linen and raw silk, handwoven in Italy, which keep to the loose Sietch style but are still close-fitting.”
On taking Lady Jessica in a new direction…
“Lady Jessica has a real arc. She goes from being the courtesan bride in ‘Dune’ to the brave mother keeping her son safe and informed on a journey, to then transitioning into a Reverend Mother. Her wardrobe had to inform that all the way along. I have always said I try to dress characters from the inside out. Like all the characters I dress in the film, I tried to make her wardrobe reveal what she is going through and how she has developed.”
On designing for four very different new characters…
“The Mongol ruler Kublai Khan sitting on a throne guided me for the Emperor’s costumes. There was an elegant simplicity about it that I felt he should have. Christopher Walken, who is so long and lean, carried that look off brilliantly.”
“Princess Irulan is royal but she’s a Bene Gesserit, so I wanted to keep her head mainly covered, in keeping with the Bene Gesserit being based on medieval nuns. The head dress had to be much more ornate, however. I designed a close fitting chainmail hood with a meshlike metal grille covering the nose and mouth. Like all the headdresses, it was made by a beader in Budapest. The armor she wears in one scene is based on medieval armor because she is there as a warrior princess.”
“I’m always inspired by the great designers, and vintage Balenciaga was one of the guiding lights for all the Bene Gesserit, including Lady Fenring. Balenciaga took many of his designs from religious paintings, so I felt that harkened back to the Bene Gesserit, who are nuns. Balenciaga did one design in the 1940s inspired by Velasquez’s Black Madonna. That was my inspiration for Lady Fenring, along with a beautiful design from my fascist fashion book.”
“Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, who is played by Austin Butler, is the rockstar of the film, albeit a rockstar with no morals. We transferred many of the aspects of the Harkonnen look from ‘Dune’ into the costumes for this film, including the armor. But for Feyd, I wanted a much more streamlined look for all his wardrobe, including the costume he wears for the gladiator scene, which had to fit Austin’s body perfectly. Fortunately, he has a beautiful physique. As soon as he put it on and started moving, it became a collaboration. Austin moves like a dancer. We adjusted the costume so he could do all of the stunts in that gladiator fight scene. He also has to look really good, so we did a lot of adding pieces and taking pieces away until it looked magnificent on him.”
On sourcing the fabrics for the many looks from many places…
“We got a lot of fabrics from Japan. For the Sietch, many of the fabrics came from Thailand, from Siam Fabrics. We also brought in so much fabric from Italy, including velvet for the southern Reverend Mothers and other fabrics. We also had lots of silk from England.”
On using elements of the Chakobsa alphabet and the Fremen lifestyle in the design of the fabrics…
“Because water is in short supply on Arrakis, our chief textile artist, Matt Reitsma, came up with this brilliant idea of using the same vats of dye over and over and over. So, the colors in some garments have a beautiful ombre effect.”
On designing jewelry for the Fremen…
“The jewelry was a separate creative challenge. We ordered several pieces from the Middle East and northern Africa as well as antique items including rings, headdresses, and necklaces, then took everything apart and designed our own collection. The Sietch jewelry is interesting because the Fremen love silver and copper; silver symbolizes virility, copper health, so we kept all the jewelry in that framework. Some of the Fremen have their water rings on their still-suits as a talisman; it denotes how many they took in battle and harvested their water. The women living in the Sietch are treasurers of a kind and the keepers of the water rings. Chani, for example, has the water ring necklace that she wears.”
— Richard King —
Supervising Sound Editor
On his practical approach to carrying certain sound elements from “Dune” into “Dune: Part Two”…
“The folks at Park Road Post in Wellington, New Zealand, had worked on the first film, so they were key to reusing and reinventing some of the sounds, the ornithopters and specifically the thumpers, signature sounds invented for the first film. They had a team going there and we had a team going here, and I supervised both teams, coordinating the work of both.”
On Denis Villeneuve’s “vision” for sound in the film…
“We recorded a lot—everything in the film is our practical, real-world recorded sounds. Denis wanted the world to be very visceral and tactile, and recognizable as real. ‘Documentary’ was the word that he used, he wanted for the audience to have the feeling that all of this sound was recorded the day the shots were filmed.
On creating the sound for the sandworms…
Of course, the worm’s a visual effect, but all the sounds were created from natural, recorded sounds. We did a lot of recording in the desert, dragging large objects across sand and gravel and then utilizing pitch shifters and other simple analog tools to alter the sounds.”
On capturing the sound of the wind created by the speed of the sandworms…
For the wind—because the worms travel very fast, we needed a lot of fast, buffeting winds, we sent the sound effects recordists to Africa, to the Sahara Desert, to record wind. He brought back some beautiful recordings of wind of all different velocities, from very still to buffeting to sandstorms.”
On sound design influencing the overall tone of the film…
“I think some design in general creates the world that the characters inhabit, and the goal is to fool the audience into thinking that all these sounds were recorded on the day and aren’t being added, that they’re the sounds of the world in which the characters are inhabiting. I think the sound is very important in creating the mood, the feeling of place and time, of whether it’s hot or cold or windy, or whether it’s dangerous, or is just the vibe of the location. Sound works to a great extent subliminally, because people are much more visually oriented than sonically oriented and tend to accept the sounds they hear as organic, so we basically have to create that world, but make it as invisible as possible to the audience.”
— Hans Zimmer —
Composer
On “returning” to the world of “Dune”…
“I never left the world of ‘Dune.’ In fact, I think Denis thought I was quite mad, because I kept writing after we finished the first movie. But because I knew the story, I knew the book, I knew what was coming our way. And in fact, a lot of the main themes in this second movie were written at the end of the first film, before Denis started shooting. It felt important to carry on writing when we were still in the same spirit, the same frame of mind.”
On the experience of creating the score for the “Dune” films Denis Villeneuve creates…
“I have never had an experience like this because there was never a book that I wanted to score that badly. Furthermore, Denis is first and foremost a great friend, and a visionary director. On top of that, he managed to do some—to me—magic tricks. You know the internal monologue characters have in this book that is so uncinematic? He managed to give you that part of the storytelling in a totally cinematic way, without relying on voiceover and stuff like that. He is always thinking as a filmmaker. He made Dune into a film as opposed to a talking book. After we finished the first one, when it hit the end credits, I remember checking my copy of the book and realizing ‘Oh, we’re only on page 156! We hadn’t really started yet…’”
On creating themes for the different or expanded cultures in the worlds of “Dune: Part Two”…
“I wanted to do a different sonic landscape for each world, so the Harkonnen world is brutal-industrial. It’s like you’re having dinner in a steel foundry. For the Fremen world, on the other hand, I had their songs sung by the wind across the desert, with beauty and simplicity and natural sounds. There are a lot of wood sounds and a lot of sand in the score. Furthermore you have the Bene Gesserit voices, the female voices, and all of it gives you these different textures. There’s the Emperor as well; for him, I tried to make it understood that under his sophisticated demeanor hides a snake that will kill you if you turn your back.”
On his twist for a Paul and Chani love theme…
“For this film, I didn’t want a ‘love theme’ between Chani and Paul. Their romance is atypical, yet still at the heart of the story. What I wanted it to be was her to show him how to love this barren planet, and through that, showcase her own strength.”
On taking his score into this next chapter…
“This isn’t a sequel. This is a continuation. So, at the time of writing the first one, I was very aware that I had to further develop our motives, that I couldn’t just discard them to write new ones. There had to be development, there had to be bridges and links across… I don’t even know how many years. Let me tell you, the greatest ally you can have as a film composer is your music editor.
And Ryan Rubin, one of our supervising music editors, he and I would go through the whole score and see where we’re being conventional, where we’re being too cautious, where we can improve things, where we can invent better sounds. I mean, a normal composer writes on paper, or whatever, gives it to the orchestra. They sit down, they play their instruments, they go home. That’s not what we do. We are going, ‘Okay, what’s the sound, what color do we need? Now let’s invent and build the machine that can create that sound.’”
On his collaborating artists for the film…
“We had these amazing chaps from France over with this beautiful instrument, which took them only 10 years to build. It’s called the Osmose. We had a great synth program, and everybody on the team would be programming and making and recording sounds. Guthrie Govan, the guitarist, was here from England. Juan Garcia-Herreros, the bass player, had flown in from Tahiti. Aleksandra Suklar, the percussionist, had flown in from Vienna. Guillaume Bonneau, Christophe Duquesne and Eddie Eagan, all genius inventors and musicians from France, contributed with The Osmose.
When you play a note on a piano, basically it goes ‘plonk,’ and it dies out. On the Osmose, when you touch the keyboard, it knows where on the key you’re touching it and, as you bring your finger down, within the travel of that key, the sound can change completely by how you move on the key. Of course, as a simple example, the one thing every keyboard player wants to do is what a violinist can do, guitars can do, which is play with vibrato. On the Osmose you can wobble your keys left and right, and literally transform a sound completely just with that small gesture.”
On constantly innovating for the musical sounds of “Dune: Part Two”…
It’s a constant path of discovery for us. We can throw things in and go, ‘what would happen if you did this, or tried that? Let’s look at the scene!’ For example, Molly Rogers is one of our violinists who is also an amazing singer. We took a fragment of her voice and found a way of re-synthesizing it. Suddenly her voice could do things and freely behave in ways that was certainly beyond human.”
On bringing Denis into the creative process…
“I don’t think I’ve ever worked with anybody who is quite as considerate as Denis. When the scoring stage is full of musicians and sound designers, with everyone throwing everything at the picture to create the score, and Denis is with us in the room, it could get quite intimidating. But I know and he knows that everybody would do anything for him and the film. And he would do anything for us. He leads with brilliance, intelligence and kindness. So, coming back to do ‘Part Two’ was coming back to the family.”
CAST
TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET (Paul Atreides) is an Oscar nominee who most recently starred as the title character in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “Wonka” for director Paul King, garnering a Golden Globe nomination for his performance.
Chalamet had his breakout performance in Luca Guadagnino’s “Call Me By Your Name,” for which he received SAG Award, BAFTA Award and Academy Award nominations. Chalamet was the youngest Best Actor Oscar nominee since 1939. He won the Independent Spirit Award for “Best Actor” and received Best Actor awards from the New York Film Critics, the Los Angeles Film Critics and numerous other critics groups. That same year, he appeared in Greta Gerwig’s six-time Oscar-nominated film “Lady Bird,” opposite Saoirse Ronan, and in Scott Cooper’s “Hostiles,” opposite Christian Bale.
Last year, Chalamet starred in Luca Guadagnino’s “Bones and All,” alongside Taylor Russell, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival to rave reviews and a 10-minute standing ovation. In 2021, Chalamet starred in Legendary Pictures’ and Warner Bros. Pictures’ nine-time Oscar-nominated film “Dune,” directed by Denis Villeneuve. Chalamet also starred opposite Frances McDormand and Lyna Khoudri in the Wes Anderson film “The French Dispatch,” which set a record for the top opening theater average of the COVID-19 pandemic era. Chalamet appeared in Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up,” alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence. The film received four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, and hit a record high of 360-million hours of viewing during its first 28 days on the Netflix.
In 2018, Chalamet starred opposite Steve Carell in Felix Van Groeningen’s film “Beautiful Boy,” for which he received Screen Actors Guild and BAFTA Award nominations for his performance. Previously, he appeared in David Michod’s “The King,” Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” and starred in Julia Hart’s “Miss Stevens.”
Chalamet’s television work includes a leading role on season two of the acclaimed series “Homeland,” opposite Damian Lewis and Claire Danes, which won the SAG Award that year for Best Ensemble in a Drama Series. His theatre credits include the off-Broadway production of John Patrick Shanley’s “Prodigal Son,” for which he won the Lucille Lortel Award and was nominated for Drama Desk and Clive Barnes Awards for Best Actor.
ZENDAYA (Chani) is an Emmy Award-winning actor and one of the most prominent and influential names in the entertainment industry today. Born and raised in Oakland, California, Zendaya grew up performing, having spent much of her childhood at the local theater where her mother worked.
Zendaya launched her career as an actress on Disney Channel starring in the hit series “Shake It Up” for three seasons and “K.C. Undercover” for three seasons, which she also helped produce.
Zendaya starred in Jon Watts’ “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” followed by “Spider-Man: Far From Home.” Zendaya was also seen as Chani in Denis Villenueve’s film “Dune,” opposite Timothée Chalamet and Oscar Isaac.
In addition to returning to her role of Chani for “Dune: Part Two,” Zendaya is producing and starring in the romantic sports comedy “Challengers,” opposite Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor, directed by Luca Guadagnino, out in theaters this April.
Zendaya won two Emmys for Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her performance in HBO and A24’s first and second seasons of “Euphoria.” Her performance as Rue in the first season made her the youngest woman to win an Emmy for Lead Drama Actress.
In addition to her Emmy wins, Zendaya’s performance in the second season earned her a Golden Globe and a Critics Choice Award for Best Television Actress in a Drama Series. She garnered two NAACP Image Award nominations for Entertainer of the Year and Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series and received a nomination for the SAG Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series. She also received CinemaCon’s Star of the Year Award.
Zendaya can also be seen as titular character Marie in Netflix’s 2021 film “Malcolm and Marie.” Zendaya helped create and produce the film in the beginning of the pandemic. Her other credits include “Space Jam: A New Legacy” with Lebron James, “The Greatest Showman,” opposite Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron, and the animated film “Smallfoot.”
Outside of acting, Zendaya is a leading fashion icon. In Spring 2019, Zendaya launched her first fashion collaboration with Tommy Hilfiger, titled TommyXZendaya. In 2021, Zendaya received the CFDA’s Fashion Icon Award, making her the youngest recipient of this award.
REBECCA FERGUSON (Lady Jessica) first caught the attention of international audiences playing the iconic Queen Elizabeth in the BBC/Starz series “The White Queen,” for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. She has since established herself as a leading actress in the industry. In “Dune: Part Two,” she reprises her role as Lady Jessica from Denis Villeneuve’s six-time Oscar-nominated “Dune” (2021).
Ferguson starred opposite Tom Cruise in Chris McQuarrie’s “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” (2022), reprising her role as Ilsa Faust from “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” (2018) and “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” (2015). For the latter performance, Ferguson was nominated for a Critics Choice Award.
Ferguson also starred in Lisa Joy’s sci-fi feature “Reminiscence,” alongside Hugh Jackman and Thandiwe Newton. The film follows a private investigator of the mind (Jackman) who helps his clients relive past memories and uses the technology to search for his long-lost love (Ferguson).
Ferguson’s other recent film credits include starring opposite Ewan McGregor in Mike Flanagan’s “Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep,” the sequel to the King cult classic “The Shining”; opposite Hugh Jackman in Michael Gracey’s “The Greatest Showman”; opposite Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal in Daniel Espinosa’s sci-fi feature “Life”; opposite Michael Fassbender in Tomas Alfredson’s “The Snowman”; and alongside Emily Blunt in Tate Taylor’s “The Girl on the Train.”
In September, Ferguson began production on “Wool” a major new series for Apple TV+, adapted from the acclaimed novel by Hugh Howey. Ferguson stars in the leading role and she will executive produce alongside showrunner Graham Yost and director Morten Tyldum.
JOSH BROLIN (Gurney Halleck) is an Academy Award-nominated actor and one of Hollywood’s top leading men, who continues to balance challenging roles in both mainstream studio productions as well as thought-provoking independents.
This May, Brolin will return to Amazon Prime Video’s acclaimed sci-fi western series OUTER RANGE, on which he also serves as an executive producer and director for the second season. The series centers on rancher Royal Abbott (Brolin) fighting for his territory and grappling with the unknown after discovering a mystery on his land.
As an integral part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Brolin starred as super-villain Thanos in the blockbusters AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR and its sequel, AVENGERS: ENDGAME, the finale of all three phases of the MCU, which opened to rave reviews and became the second-highest grossing movie of all time.
In 2009, Brolin was nominated for an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and received awards from the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Board of Review for his portrayal of Dan White in Gus Van Sant’s acclaimed biopic MILK. His additional Best Picture Oscar-nominated films include Denis Villeneuve’s DUNE, the Coen Brothers’ TRUE GRIT, which was nominated for 10 Academy Awards in 2011, and 2007’s NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, also from the Coen Brothers, which won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. His other highly acclaimed performances include his portrayal of George W. Bush in Oliver Stone’s biopic, W., Ridley Scott’s blockbuster AMERICAN GANGSTER, for which he was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the ensemble, and Denis Villeneuve’s SICARIO, which was nominated for three Academy Awards.
His other film credits include: Oliver Stone’s WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS opposite Shia LaBeouf and Michael Douglas; Joseph Kosinski’s ONLY THE BRAVE; Joel and Ethan Coen’s comedy HAIL, CAESAR! opposite George Clooney, Channing Tatum, and Tilda Swinton; LEGACY OF A WHITETAIL DEER HUNTER opposite Danny McBride and Carrie Coon; EVEREST opposite Jake Gyllenhaal, Jason Clarke, and John Hawkes; Paul Thomas Anderson’s INHERENT VICE, an adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon detective novel of the same name alongside an all-star cast, including Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, and Owen Wilson; Sean Penn’s FLAG DAY; Colin Broderick’s A BEND IN THE RIVER, which Brolin executive produced; LABOR DAY, directed by Jason Reitman; Spike Lee’s OLD BOY; MEN IN BLACK 3; Paul Verhoeven’s blockbuster hit HOLLOW MAN; and David O. Russell’s FLIRTING WITH DISASTER. Brolin made his feature film debut starring in the action-comedy classic GOONIES, directed by Richard Donner for producer Steven Spielberg.
On television, Brolin made his mark as a series regular in the popular ABC series THE YOUNG RIDERS, as well as PRIVATE EYE for NBC and WINNETKA ROAD for CBS. Brolin also received critical praise in the TNT epic miniseries INTO THE WEST, opposite Beau Bridges, Gary Busey and Jessica Capshaw. In addition, Brolin starred in the title role of NBC’s acclaimed political drama, MR. STERLING.
As a producer, Brolin joined Matt Damon, Chris Moore, Anthony Arnove, and Howard Zinn in a documentary entitled THE PEOPLE SPEAK, based on Zinn’s influential 1980 book A People’s History of the United States. The film, which aired on the History Channel in 2009, looked at America’s struggles with war, class, race, and women’s rights, and featured readings by Viggo Mortensen, Sean Penn, and David Strathairn, among others. Brolin made his directing debut in 2008 with a short-entitled X, which he also wrote and produced. It premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival before screening at such festivals as South by Southwest and the AFI Dallas Film Festival.
AUSTIN BUTLER (Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen) boasts a long list of credits on the big screen and television, and a roster of accolades. For his role in 2022’s smash hit “Elvis,” from filmmaker Baz Luhrmann, Butler was nominated for an Academy Award and a SAG Award and won the BAFTA and the Golden Globe for Best Actor for his performance in the title role. His critically acclaimed work also garnered him the Breakthrough Performance Award from the Palm Springs Film Festival, the Virtuoso Award from the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and praise from numerous critics’ associations.
In addition to “Dune: Part Two,” Butler can soon be seen in Jeff Nichols’ feature “The Bikeriders” and John Orloff’s WWII-set limited series “Masters of the Air.”
In spring of 2018, Butler made his Broadway debut, starring opposite Denzel Washington in “The Iceman Cometh,” which was nominated for eight Tony Awards. Butler received rave reviews for his work in the role of lost boy Don Parritt.
2019 proved to be a very successful year for Butler when his films “The Dead Don’t Die” and “Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood” were both released. He appeared alongside Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Adam Driver, and Selena Gomez in “The Dead Don’t Die,” directed by Jim Jarmusch. Director Quentin Tarantino cast him in the role of Tex in “Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood,” which included a star-studded cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Dakota Fanning, among others.
FLORENCE PUGH (Princess Irulan) is a globally acclaimed, Academy Award- and BAFTA-nominated British actress who has delivered noteworthy performances across film and television.
Most recently, Pugh appeared as Jean Tatlock in the Academy Award-, SAG-, BAFTA- and Golden Globe-nominated film “Oppenheimer,” directed by Christopher Nolan. The film was released in theaters on July 21, 2023 and is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird. It has also been recognized by many awards groups, guilds and the industry across the globe as one of the best films of 2023. The cast boasts impressive talent with Cillian Murphy helming and Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Rami Malek, Benny Safdie, Josh Hartnett, Dane DeHaan, Matthew Modine and Jack Quaid also appearing.
Pugh can currently be heard as Kiriko in the English-language dubbed version of Studio Ghibli’s latest animated film, “The Boy and the Heron,” alongside Willem Dafoe, Christian Bale, and Robert Pattinson. The film was written and directed by Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazak, and was released in the US on December 8, 2023.
In 2023, Pugh starred alongside Morgan Freeman and Molly Shannon in the Zach Braff directed film “A Good Person,” which Braff also wrote. The film follows Allison (Pugh), whose life falls apart following her involvement in a fatal car accident. In the following years, it is the unlikely relationship she forms with her would-be father-in-law (Freeman) that helps her lead a life worth living. “A Good Person” was distributed by MGM on March 31, 2023.
Up next, Pugh will next begin production on Marvel Studios’ “Thunderbolts,” the follow-up to her star making turn as Yelena in “Black Widow.” The film also stars Harrison Ford, David Harbour, Sebastian Stan, Ayo Edebiri, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
In 2022, Pugh starred in Netflix’s “The Wonder,” an adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s novel of the same name. Set in the late 1850s, the story follows an English nurse called Lib (Pugh) in Ireland who is hired to examine a young girl surviving under unusual and seemingly miraculous circumstances. Ciarán Hinds, Toby Jones, and Tom Burke round out the ensemble. The film was directed by Sebastián Lelio and released on Netflix on November 16, 2022.
Pugh can also be heard as Goldilocks in Universal’s Academy Award nominated animated film “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.” Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek star.
Pugh also starred as Alice in “Don’t Worry Darling” for Warner Bros., alongside Harry Styles, Gemma Chan and Chris Pine. The film debuted at the 2022 Venice Film Festival and was released in theaters on September 23, 2022.
In 2021, Pugh co-starred as Yelena Belova, opposite Scarlett Johansson, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film “Black Widow,” directed by Cate Shortland. The film also co-starred David Harbour and Rachel Weisz. Pugh’s Marvel character Yelena Belova also appeared in the Disney+ series “Hawkeye,” based on the Marvel Comics superhero Hawkeye starring Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld.
In December 2019, Pugh starred as Amy March in Great Gerwig’s adaptation of “Little Women.” Adapted from Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel of the same name, the coming-of-age feature centered on four sisters during the Civil War era in Massachusetts after leaving their family home. Pugh received an Oscar nomination for her performance in the film in the category of Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, a British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award nomination in the category of Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and a Critics’ Choice Movie Award nomination in the category of Best Supporting Actress.
In July 2019, Pugh starred in A24’s cult classic horror film “Midsommar,” directed by Ari Aster. Pugh was nominated in the category of Best Actress for the 2019 Gotham Independent Film Awards and was awarded the Virtuoso Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Earlier the same year, Pugh had the lead role in the MGM and WWE studio’s “Fighting With My Family,” based on the life of WWE wrestler Paige, written and directed by Stephen Merchant. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
In 2018, Pugh starred in AMC’s “Little Drummer Girl,” which launched on BBC in the UK. Based on the le Carré bestseller of the same name, the six-part drama is set in the 1970s as a young, brilliant actress prepares for her ultimate role in the theater of the real, and against the backdrop of rising tensions in the Middle East. Park Chan-Wook directs and Alexander Skarsgaard and Michael Shannon in co-lead roles.
Pugh was the female lead in director’s David McKenzie’s “Outlaw King” which premiered on Netflix in November 2018. “Outlaw King” told the story of “Robert The Bruce,” the king who led his country to freedom from the oppressive rule of England during the First War of Scottish Independence. The film also starred Chris Pine and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
Pugh first made her mark with her starring role as Katherine Lester in Roadside’s “Lady Macbeth.” Directed by William Oldroyd, the film followed Katherine, who has been sold into marriage, as she discovers an unstoppable desire within herself when she enters into an affair with a worker on her estate. The film was named one of 2017’s Top 10 Independent Films by the National Board of review and won Best British Independent Film at the 2017 British Independent Film Awards. Pugh won Best Actress at the 2017 British Independent Film Awards and received the Malone Souliers Award for Breakthrough of the Year at the 2017 Evening Standard British Film Awards for her performance.
Pugh has also been seen in a starring role in ITV’s critical-hit “Marcella,” an 8-part crime-thriller from the creators of the Scandinavian hit series “The Bridge,” the action film “The Commuter” opposite Liam Neeson, and as Cordelia opposite Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson in the BBC/Amazon television movie “King Lear.”
Pugh made her stunning debut in Carol Morley’s “The Falling” as Abigail, which earned her a Best Young Performer nomination at the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards.
DAVE BAUTISTA (Beast Rabban Harkonnen) starred as Drax the Destroyer in the 2014 feature “Guardians of the Galaxy,” opposite Chris Pratt, Benicio Del Toro, Bradley Cooper and Zoe Saldana. The film follows an unlikely cast of characters, including an American pilot and a group of ex-cons, who join forces and go on the run to defeat a cosmic force of epic proportions.
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” premiered in May 2017, adding Kurt Russell and Sylvester Stallone to the cast. It crossed over $863 million at the box office. The Guardians have since joined the Avengers in “Avengers; Infinity War,” which opened April 2018 to the highest grossing opening weekend in history. The fourth installation of the “Avengers” franchise premiered in April 2019 with “Avengers: Endgame,” which became the highest grossing film of all time with over $2.79 billion. In fall 2021, Bautista will begin production on “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” to be released May 2023.
Bautista can next be seen in August in the second season of the Apple TV series “See,” starring opposite Jason Momoa. “See” takes place in the distant future, after a deadly virus decimated humankind. Those who survived emerged blind. He is currently shooting the Netflix film “Knives Out 2,” with Daniel Craig, written and directed by Rian Johnson.
Bautista was recently seen in the Netflix action/horror film “Army of the Dead” for director Zack Snyder. The film follows a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, where a group of mercenaries take the ultimate gamble, venturing into the quarantine zone to pull off the greatest heist ever attempted. The film is ranked in the top 10 of Netflix’s most-viewed films of all time.
In 2019, Bautista and his longtime manager, Jonathan Meisner, formed the production company Dream Bros Entertainment, which produced the upcoming family/action film “My Spy,” which premiered in June 2020 on Amazon Prime. The film stars Bautista in the title role of a hardened CIA operative who finds himself at the mercy of a precocious nine-year-old girl, having been sent undercover to surveil her family.
In Summer 2019, Bautista made his comedy debut in the feature film “Stuber,” starring opposite Kumail Nanjiani. The film, directed by Michael Dowse, centers around an unsuspecting Uber driver named Stu who gets into a harrowing night of mayhem. In 2018, Bautista was in “Hotel Artemis,” opposite Jodie Foster and Sterling K. Brown, as well as the action film “Final Score,” in which he played an ex-soldier forced to save a football stadium full of fans from terrorists. In November 2015, Bautista was seen in the Sony feature “Spectre,” the 24th installment of the James Bond film series. Starring opposite Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz and Lea Seydoux, Bautista played Hinx, a fast-driving, battle-hardened hitman for the secretive terrorist cartel SPECTRE.
In Spring 2019, Bautista made his highly anticipated return to wrestling to headline WWE’s WrestleMania in New Jersey, where he officially retired from the WWE. He was a six-time world champion and an international spokesman for the organization.
Bautista’s past film credits include “Blade Runner 2049,” “Escape Plan 2 &3,” “Bushwick,” Luc Besson’s “Warrior Gate,” “Riddick” and “The Man with the Iron Fists.” His past TV credits include “Chuck,” “Headcase” and “Smallville.”
CHRISTOPHER WALKEN (Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV) has had a distinguished career spanning across film, dance, television, and stage, and he has amassed a wealth of accolades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Notably, he has also received nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Tony Awards.
Walken’s early roles in films such as “The Anderson Tapes” (1971), “Next Stop, Greenwich Village” (1976), “Roseland” (1977), and “Annie Hall” (1977) laid the foundation for his broader recognition. However, it was his compelling portrayal of the troubled Vietnam War veteran Nick Chevotarevich in “The Deer Hunter” (1978) that earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Another noteworthy nomination came for his role as Frank Abagnale’s father in Steven Spielberg’s “Catch Me If You Can” (2002).
Following this breakthrough, Walken showcased his versatile talent by taking on diverse roles in various genres, both as a lead and supporting actor. His extensive filmography includes notable titles like “The Dogs of War” (1980), “Brainstorm” (1983), “The Dead Zone” (1983), “A View to a Kill” (1985), “At Close Range” (1986), “Biloxi Blues” (1988), “King of New York” (1990), “Batman Returns” (1992), “True Romance” (1993), “Pulp Fiction” (1994), “Sleepy Hollow” (1999), “Man on Fire” (2004), “Wedding Crashers” (2005), “Hairspray” (2007), “Seven Psychopaths” (2012), and “A Late Quartet” (2012), among others. Additionally, he lent his distinctive voice to animated films such as “Antz” (1998) and “The Jungle Book” (2016).
In the realm of stage acting, Walken starred alongside Irene Worth in a 1975 Broadway revival of “Sweet Bird of Youth.” His repertoire also includes lead roles in Shakespearean plays like “Hamlet,” “Macbeth,” “Romeo and Juliet,” and “Coriolanus.” Notably, his performance in the original rendition of James Joyce’s “The Dead” (2000) earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical. Additionally, he received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play for his role in Martin McDonagh’s “A Behanding in Spokane” (2010).
Walken has left his mark in television with notable appearances in films such as “Who Am I This Time?” (1982) and “Sarah, Plain and Tall” (1991), earning a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for the latter. More recently, he has taken on roles in television series such as “The Outlaws” (2021–) and “Severance” (2022–), the latter earning him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.
Léa Seydoux (Lady Margot Fenring) reprised her role as Madeleine Swann from the 2015 James Bond franchise film SPECTRE in the latest installment, NO TIME TO DIE, making history, as no other love interest has ever played a significant part in more than one of the Bond films. This sequel follows James Bond (Daniel Craig) after just leaving active service, compelled to return for a final mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist, which leads him onto the trail of a mysterious villain (Rami Malek) armed with dangerous new technology. Universal Pictures released the film internationally and in the UK on September 30, 2021 and MGM/United Artists Releasing launched the picture in the US on October 8, 2021. Garnering $708 million at the worldwide Box Office, the feature became the highest-grossing Hollywood film of 2020/2021.
Upcoming, Seydoux will star in the upcoming time-skipping, sci-fi romance THE BEAST, opposite George MacKay, from writer and director Bertrand Bonello. The film, which premiered to critical acclaim at the 2023 Venice International Film Festival, is set to release in France on February 7, 2024.
In 2022, Seydoux took to the screen as Sandra Kienzler in Mia Hansen-Løve’s ONE FINE MORNING (UN BEAU MATIN), opposite Pascal Greggory, Nicole Garcia, and Melvil Poupaud. The romance-drama follows the story of a young mother (Seydoux) and her family as they navigate the struggles of her ailing father and a new relationship. The film had its world premiere at the 75th Annual Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2022 and received the Europa Cinemas Label Award for Best European Film.
Seydoux starred as the female lead as L’Amante Anglaise in Arnaud Desplechin’s DECEPTION. Based on Philip Roth’s 1990 novel of the same name, the film follows an American novelist living in London who converses with his wife, mistress, and other female characters that he may have dreamed up. The film had its world premiere at the 74th Annual Cannes Film Festival in July 2021 and was released by Le Pacte later that year.
Seydoux was previously seen co-starring in David Cronenberg’s written and directed sci-fi thriller CRIMES OF THE FUTURE, opposite Viggo Mortensen and Kristen Stewart. The story focuses on the not-so-distant future in which humankind is learning to adapt to its synthetic surroundings. The picture made its world premiere at the 75th Annual Cannes Film Festival on May 23, 2022 and was released in theaters nationwide by Neon on June 3, 2022.
Additionally, Seydoux co-starred in director Bruno Dumont’s FRANCE. The film revolves around a celebrity journalist (Seydoux), constantly juggling her busy career and personal life, whose live is overturned by a car accident. Further, Seydoux took on the role of Lizzy in director Ildikó Enyedi’s drama THE STORY OF MY WIFE, opposite Gijs Naber, Louis Garrel, Josef Hader, Sergio Rubini, and Jasmine Trinca. Based on the novel of the same name, the story follows a sea captain who makes a bet with a friend that he will marry the first woman who walks inside. Both films had their world premieres at the 74th Annual Cannes Film Festival in July 2021.
In October 2021, Seydoux co-starred in the Wes Anderson film THE FRENCH DISPATCH, alongside Adrien Brody and Benicio Del Toro. The story is a love letter to journalists set in an outpost of an American newspaper, in a fictional 20th-century French city, that brings a collection of stories to life that are published in The French Dispatch magazine. The film had its world premiere at the 74th Annual Cannes Film Festival on July 12th and Searchlight Pictures released the picture in the US on October 22, 2021.
Seydoux was previously seen in Drake Doremus’ ZOE, opposite Ewan McGregor, and Thomas Vinterburg’s KURSK, opposite Colin Firth and Matthias Schoenaerts. Additionally, she starred alongside Marion Cotillard, Vincent Cassel and Gaspard Ulliel in Xavier Dolan’s film IT’S ONLY THE END OF THE WORLD, winner of the Grand Prix and the Ecumenical Jury Prize at Cannes. Other credits include Mosco Boucault’s French Drama OH MERCY! Benoît Jacquot’s DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID, and Yorgos Lanthimos’ THE LOBSTER, opposite Rachel Weisz, Colin Farrell and John C. Reilly, which won the Jury Prize at Cannes.
In 2014, Seydoux starred in several films, including Bertrand Bonello’s SAINT LAURENT, which was nominated for several awards at Cannes; Wes Anderson’s THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL, opposite Ed Norton, Ralph Fiennes, Adrien Brody and Billy Murray, which went on to win four Oscars; and Christophe Gans’ BEAUTY AND THE BEAST alongside Vincent Cassel, winning the César Award for Best Production Design.
In 2013, Seydoux starred opposite Adèle Exarchopoulos in Abdellatif Kechiche’s BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR. The French romantic coming-of-age drama was the first film to have the Palme d’Or awarded to both the director and the lead actresses, with Seydoux and Exarchopoulos becoming the only women (apart from director Jane Campion) to have ever won the award.
Seydoux’s other credits include Brad Bird’s MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL, opposite Tom Cruise; Quentin Tarantino’s INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, opposite Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, and Michael Fassbender; Ridley Scott’s ROBIN HOOD, opposite Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett.
Seydoux is currently featured as one of the faces of Louis Vuitton.
SOUHEILA YACOUB (Shishkali) hails from Geneva, Switzerland and in 2022 won the EFP Shooting Star award at the Berlin International Film Festival. In addition to the upcoming “Dune: Part Two,” her film credits include Cédric Kahn’s “Making Of,” Benoît Volnais and Alice Zeniter’s “Before We Collapse,” Cédric Klapisch’s “Rise,” Yassine Qnia’s “A Brighter Tomorrow,” Anaïs Volpé’s “The Braves,” Philippe Garrel’s “The Salt of Tears,” Léa Frédeval’s “Les affamés,” and Gaspar Noé’s “Climax.”
On television, Yacoub has appeared in the series “No Man’s Land,” “Savages,” “Plus belle la vie” and “H24, 24 h de la vie d’une femme.”
Stellan Skarsgård (Baron Vladimir Harkonnen) is a prolific, award-winning actor with credits that include such films as “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote,” “Mamma Mia!” and “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again,” “The Wife,” “Borg vs. McEnroe,” “The Avengers” and “Thor” films, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” “Melancholia,” “Angels & Demons,” the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films, “Goya’s Ghosts,” “Exorcist: the Beginning,” “King Arthur,” “Dogville,” “The Glass House,” “Dancer in the Dark,” “Deep Blue Sea,” “Ronin,” “Good Will Hunting,” which earned him a Screen Actors Guild (SAG( Award nomination for Best Ensemble, “Amistad,” “Breaking the Waves,” “The Hunt for Red October,” “The Unbearable Lightness of Being,” and many more.
On television, he has appeared in the series “Chernobyl,” for which he won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor, “River,” “Entourage,” “Andor” for Disney + and Lucas Films, and more, as well as such TV movies as “God on Trial,” “D-Day,” and “Hamlet,” among others.
CHARLOTTE RAMPLING, OBE (Reverend Mother Mohiam) began her career in 1964. The films that have marked her way include Georgy Girl, Luchino Visconti’s The Damned, Liliana Cavani’s The Night Porter, Farewell my Lovely, Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories, Sidney Lumet’s The Verdict, Alain Parker’s Angel Heart, Michael Cacoyannis’s The Cherry Orchard, Nagisa Oshima’s Max my Love, Francois Ozon’s Under the Sand and Swimming Pool, Lauren Cantet’s Heading South, Iain Softley’s Wings of a Dove, and Dominik Moll’s Lemming.
More recently, I, Anna, Fred Schepsi’s The Eye of the Storm, The Duchess, Never Let Me Go, Lars von Trier’s Melancholia, Todd Solondz’s Life During Wartime, Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years, The Sense of an Ending, Euphoria, Red Sparrow, Paul Verhoeven’s Bendetta, and Juniper. For television: Broadchurch, Dexter, Restless, and London Spy.
Rampling was nominated for an Oscar in 2016 for 45 Years.
JAVIER BARDEM (Stilgar) is Spain’s most internationally acclaimed actor, an Academy Award winner and a four-time nominee who has captivated audiences worldwide with his diverse performances. Most recently, Bardem played the iconic King Triton in Disney’s highly anticipated live action remake of The Little Mermaid by director Rob Marshall, alongside break-out star Halle Bailey, Melissa McCarthy, Daveed Diggs, Awkwafina, Jacob Trembley and Jonah Hauer-King.
Bardem reprises his role as “Stilgar” in Denis Villeneuve’s epic science-fiction film Dune Part Two alongside Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya, released by Warner Bros. Pictures; Bardem can be seen in the prequel, Dune, which premiered at the 2021 Venice Film Festival to rave reviews and won six Academy Awards in 2022.
Bardem is currently in production on Netflix and Ryan Murphy’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, in which he stars alongside Chloë Sevigny. He plays the paternal role of José Menéndez in this second installment of Murphy’s Monster series, which is set to premiere later this year. Bardem is simultaneously in production on the untitled Formula One film alongside Brad Pitt, which is being directed by Top Gun: Maverick’s Joseph Kosinski.
In 2022, Bardem starred in the feature film Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, based on the beloved children’s book by Bernard Waber about a crocodile that lives in New York, alongside Shawn Mendes and Constance Wu. The film was released by Sony Pictures in October 2022 with original songs by Benj Pasek & Justin Paul, the Oscar-winning songwriting team from La La Land. Will Speck and Josh Gordon directed, with a script by Will Davies.
In 2021, Bardem also starred in Being the Ricardos as the larger-than-life entertainer and entrepreneur Desi Arnaz, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award and SAG Award for Best Actor. Written and directed by Academy Award winner Aaron Sorkin, the film chronicles a fraught week for Desi and Lucille Ball (played by Nicole Kidman) from table read to audience taping, as they face a series of professional and personal crises that threaten their show, their careers and their marriage.
Additionally, The Good Boss, directed by friend and frequent collaborator Fernando León de Aranoa, was nominated for a record breaking 20 Goya Awards in Spain. In this satire, Bardem plays Blanco, the charismatic owner of a family-run factory, under pressure as he covets a local award for business excellence. As the veneer of the perfect company cracks, Blanco has to deal with a vengeful fired worker, a depressed supervisor, and an ambitious intern. The film premiered at the San Sebastian Film Festival and is also nominated for a record breaking 20 Goya Awards in Spain.
In 2018, Bardem starred opposite his wife, Penelope Cruz, in Asghar Farhadi’s Everybody Knows, which opened the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. In 2017, Bardem and Cruz starred in Fernando Leon de Aranoa’s biopic, Loving Pablo, which tells the true story of a dramatic love affair between notorious drug lord, Pablo Escobar, and Colombian journalist, Virginia Vallejo.
Previously, Bardem starred in Darren Aronofsky’s Mother! opposite Jennifer Lawrence, as well as the fifth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean blockbuster franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.
In 2012, Bardem took audiences by storm in one of the most touted installments of the James Bond franchise, Skyfall, as the villain, Raoul Silva, opposite Daniel Craig, Dame Judi Dench, Naomie Harris and Berenice Marlohe. He has continually received critical acclaim for his role, in addition to being nominated in the supporting actor category for both a Critics Choice Movie Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. The same year, Bardem co-produced and starred in Sons of the Clouds: The Last Colony, a film documenting how the colonization of the Western Sahara has left nearly 200,000 people living in refugee camps. In October 2011, Bardem and his co-producer Alvaro Longoria, the film’s director, addressed the United Nations General Assembly’s decolonization committee, urging the delegates to end human rights abuses in the region. The film premiered at the 62nd annual Berlin International Film Festival and has been acquired by Canal Plus in Bardem’s native Spain, and was released by GoDigital via iTunes in the U.S.
Bardem was awarded the Best Actor prize at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival for his performance in Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Biutiful, a role which also earned him his third Academy Award nomination.
In 2008, Bardem received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his chilling portrayal of sociopath killer, Anton Chigurh, in Joel and Ethan Coen’s No Country for Old Men. The performance garnered a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a BAFTA, and countless other film critic awards and nominations.
Bardem won the Best Actor Award at the 2004 Venice Film Festival for his performance in Alejandro Amenabar’s film The Sea Inside, making him the second actor ever to win the award twice. He also won a Goya Award and received a Golden Globe nomination for this role. Bardem has won the Goya Award, Spain’s equivalent of the Oscar, five times and has received a total of eight nominations.
In 2000, Bardem received his first Academy Award nomination, for his portrayal of the Cuban poet and dissident Reinaldo Arenas in Julian Schnabel’s Before Night Falls. He was named Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival, received Best Actor honors from the National Society of Film Critics, the Independent Spirit Awards, the National Board of Review, and received a Golden Globe nomination for this role.
His other notable film credits include Ridley Scott’s The Counselor; Terrence Malick’s To the Wonder; Eat, Pray, Love, opposite Julia Roberts; Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona, for which he was again nominated for a Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Award; John Malkovich’s directorial debut, The Dancer Upstairs; Fernando Leon de Aranoa’s Mondays in the Sun, which was named best film at the San Sebastian Film Festival; Michael Mann’s Collateral; Mike Newell’s Love in the Time of Cholera; and Milos Forman’s Goya’s Ghosts, opposite Natalie Portman.
FILMMAKERS
DENIS VILLENEUVE (Director / Screenplay by / Producer) is an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker and screenwriter whose astute attention to detail and unique visuals have established him as one of the premier filmmakers working today. His most recent film, the highly acclaimed adaptation of Frank Herbert’s science fiction novel Dune, received six Academy Awards, five BAFTAs, three Critics Choice Awards, and nominations from the Producers Guild, Directors Guild, and Writers Guild of America, as well as recognition across the globe.
Villeneuve is currently gearing up for the March 1st theatrical release of Dune: Part Two, featuring returning stars Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Dave Bautista, Charlotte Rampling, Stellan Skarsgård as well as new cast Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Léa Seydoux and Christopher Walken.
Villeneuve’s other directorial credits include Blade Runner 2049, Arrival, Sicario, Prisoners and Incendies.
JON SPAIHTS (Screenplay by / Executive Producer) is an Oscar-nominated screenwriter of high-concept films and elevated science fiction, dedicated to exploring human nature and human passions through the lens of extraordinary stories. He is best known for “Prometheus,” “Passengers,” “Doctor Strange,” and of course, “Dune: Part One.”
MARY PARENT (Producer) is the Chairman of Worldwide Production at Legendary Entertainment, overseeing all aspects of film. While at Legendary she has produced the Academy Award-winning film DUNE, as well as KONG vs. GODZILLA, ENOLA HOLMES, DETECTIVE PIKACHU, GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS and Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s virtual reality piece, CARNE Y ARENA, which received a rare Special Achievement Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for its groundbreaking exploration into fully immersive storytelling.
Prior to joining the company in 2016, Parent was founder and CEO of Disruption Entertainment, where she produced a prolific slate of films including THE REVENANT, which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture 2016 and she won both the 2016 Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Drama, and 2016 BAFTA for Best Film. Her other films at Disruption included such commercial and critical successes as, Kong: Skull Island, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, Godzilla, Noah, and Pacific Rim.
Prior to that, Parent served as Vice Chairman of Worldwide Production at Universal Pictures and Chairman of MGM. Parent also co-founded the production company STUBER/PARENT, which produced such films as THE BREAK-UP, YOU, ME, AND DUPREE, ROLE MODELS and THE KINGDOM. Parent began her career as an agent trainee at ICM before joining New Line Cinema as a Creative Executive. At New Line, Parent served as an Executive Producer on films such as SET IT OFF and PLEASANTVILLE, eventually rising to Vice President before moving to Universal Pictures as a Senior Vice President, where she worked her way up the ranks to eventually become Vice Chairman. As an executive or producer, Parent has actively been involved in films amassing over $20 billion at the global box office.
Parent is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Producers Guild of America and has been featured in The Hollywood Reporter 100 Most Powerful People In Entertainment, the Variety 500, Vanity Fair New Establishment List, Wall Street Journal 50 Women To Watch, Hollywood Reporter Most Powerful Women in Entertainment.
CALE BOYTER (Producer) is Executive Vice President, Legendary Entertainment, and produced the highly acclaimed, six-time Academy Award-winning “Dune” from filmmaker Denis Villeneuve; the film was nominated for 10 Oscars, including Best Picture. He’s currently producing “Minecraft,” a live-action adaptation of the world’s most popular video game that stars Jason Momoa and Jack Black.
Boyter began his career at New Line Cinema, where he worked for 10 years, helping produce hits such as “Elf,” “Wedding Crashers,” “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” “Just Friends,” “A History of Violence,” and his parents’ favorite, “Hot Tub Time Machine.” Later, Boyter joined Mary Parent at her production company, Disruption Entertainment, where his credits included “Noah” and “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water.” At Legendary, Boyter produced the first live-action Pokémon movie, “POKÉMON: Detective Pikachu,” starring Ryan Reynolds, as well as “A Christmas Story Christmas,” the long-awaited sequel to the holiday classic “A Christmas Story.”
PATRICK McCORMICK (Producer) most recently produced Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis,” starring Austin Butler in the title role, which garnered eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, won four BAFTA Awards and a Golden Globe, and was named an AFI Movie of the Year. McCormick previously served as executive producer on “Tomb Raider,” starring Alicia Vikander, and “Allied,” directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Brad Pitt and Marianne Cotillard. His wide-ranging international producing career has included two films with director Tim Burton, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”; and two films with director Mike Newell, “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time,” starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Ben Kingsley, and “Donnie Brasco,” starring Johnny Depp and Al Pacino.
McCormick produced “Black Mass,” directed by Scott Cooper and starring Depp, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Joel Edgerton. He also produced two additional films starring Johnny Depp: “The Rum Diary,” based on the novel by Hunter S. Thompson, and the comedy “Mortdecai,” directed by David Keopp; as well as Bryan Singer’s fantasy adventure “Jack the Giant Slayer”; P.J. Hogan’s “Peter Pan”; Martha Coolidge’s “Angie,” starring Geena Davis and James Gandolfini; “A Shock to the System,” starring Michael Caine; and “Last Rites,” starring Tom Berenger.
McCormick served as executive producer on three films directed by Barry Levinson: “Bandits,” a comic caper starring Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton and Cate Blanchett; “An Everlasting Piece”; and “Liberty Heights.” His other credits as executive producer include Chris Columbus’s “Stepmom,” starring Julia Roberts, Susan Sarandon and Ed Harris; “The Juror,” starring Demi Moore, Alec Baldwin and James Gandolfini; and Paul Mazursky’s “The Pickle.” He was also a co-producer on Herbert Ross’s “Boys on the Side,” starring Drew Barrymore, Whoopi Goldberg, Mary-Louise Parker and Matthew McConaughey; Mazursky’s “Scenes from a Mall,” starring Woody Allen and Bette Midler; and Joe Roth’s “Streets of Gold,” starring Wesley Snipes. Earlier in his career, he served as an associate producer and/or unit production manager on such films as Brian De Palma’s “Wise Guys,” Ivan Reitman’s “Ghostbusters” and Mazursky’s “Moscow on the Hudson.”
TANYA LAPOINTE (Producer) is a producer and was the 2nd unit director on Dune: Part Two (2023). She has worked alongside director Denis Villeneuve on Arrival (2016), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), and Dune (2021), authoring behind-the-scene books such as The Art and Soul of Dune and The Art and Soul of Dune: Part Two, both translated into eight languages. Earlier in her career, she spent fifteen years as a journalist for Radio-Canada, and produced and directed documentary films, such as The Paper Man (2020).
GREIG FRASER (Director of Photography) is a multi-award-winning Australian cinematographer with an internationally celebrated career. He won an Academy Award, a BAFTA, the American Society of Cinematographers Award and the Camerimage Bronze Frog for his work on filmmaker Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune,” and received numerous other accolades. Most recently, he lensed Gareth Edwards’ “The Creator,” and prior to that, “The Batman” for director Matt Reeves, which garnered him a BAFTA nominations, as well as nods from both the American and British Societies of Cinematographers, among many others.
Prior, Fraser worked on the Disney+ flagship series “The Mandalorian.” Created by Jon Favreau, the first “Star Wars” television series saw Fraser envision and implement a new way of shooting in the studio, by using a video game engine to render special effects (e.g. a location) into a “volume” in real time. For this outstanding thought leadership he was named a recipient of Broadcasting + Cable’s 2021 Technology Leadership Award and he won the 2020 Emmy award for Best Cinematography for his work on Episode 7.
Working closely with director Gareth Edwards, Fraser also contributed to the “Star Wars” franchise with “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” the first standalone film. He opted to shoot the space opera with legendary Panavision 70mm lenses married to Arri’s Alexa 65.
Fraser’s work on “Lion” won the Golden Frog at Camerimage, the American Society of Cinematographers award for Best Cinematography, an Oscar nomination for the 2017 Best Cinematography Academy Award, a BAFTA nomination and the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Best Cinematography award. Starring Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara, the film is based on Saroo Brierley’s autobiography “A Long Way Home,” following the author’s journey to find his Indian family after being adopted in Australia.
Previously, Fraser shot “Vice,” the powerful story of former Vice President Dick Cheney, played by Christian Bale; Garth Davis’s “Mary Magdalene,” starring Rooney Mara as Mary and Joaquin Phoenix as Jesus; Rupert Wyatt’s “The Gambler”; and Bennett Miller’s “Foxcatcher,” which received five Oscar nominations and won the American Film Institute Award for Best Film.
Fraser is the recipient of numerous other accolades: He won the New York Film Critics’ Circle Award for Best Cinematographer for Kathryn Bigelow’s Academy Award nominated “Zero Dark Thirty”; and he earned the Australian Cinematography Society’s Cinematographer of the Year for his work on director Jane Campion’s “Bright Star.” “Bright Star” also earned him the Australian Film Institute’s (AFI) award for Best Cinematography and the British Independent Film Award for Best Technical Achievement.
Fraser received further AFI Best Cinematography accolades for his work on “Last Ride” and Tony Krawitz’ “Jewboy,” as well as a nomination for his work on Cracker Bag. Other films to benefit from Fraser’s expertise include “Killing Them Softly”; “Snow White and the Huntsman”; “Let Me In,” the adaption of Swedish vampire novel Let the Right One In; “The Boys are Back”; and “The Last Ride.”
His craftsmanship also appears in numerous commercials, for clients including Xbox, DirecTV, Nike, Subaru and Cadbury Schweppes.
Fraser is based in Los Angeles, California, but holds a special place in his heart for Australia.
PATRICE VERMETTE (Production Designer) is an acclaimed production designer whose work on filmmaker and frequent collaborator Denis Villeneuve’s celebrated “Dune” garnered Vermette an Academy Award, a BAFTA and an Art Directors Guild Award, as well as numerous guild, society and critics associations honors. Vermette has since designed for director Alejandro G. Iñárritu on “Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths” and Garth Davis on “Foe,” before embarking on Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two.”
In 1991, following his studies at Concordia University in Montreal, Vermette started his career designing music videos and television commercials. His feature film career took off in 2005 after the release of Canadian independent coming of age movie “C.R.A.Z.Y.” The film received international critical acclaim and public attention.
Vermette followed up with Jean-Marc Vallee’s next film project, “The Young Victoria,” for which he received his first Academy Award nomination, in 2010. Vermette’s film credits include Adam McKay’s “Vice”; Denis Villeneuve’s “Enemy,” “Prisoners” “Sicario,” and “Arrival,” earning his second Oscar nomination in 2017 for the latter. “Dune: Part Two” marks the sixth collaboration between Denis Villeneuve and Patrice Vermette.
JOE WALKER (Editor) is an acclaimed British film editor whose professional journey began not in the edit bay, but in concert halls and sound booths. Initially a classically trained composer, his passion for music has heavily influenced his editing style, where pacing, rhythm, sound and music all work in tandem. With a love of working with actors’ performances and a keen sense for story, Walker brings all these skills to bear to craft a rewarding emotional journey for the audience.
A four-time Oscar nominee and Oscar winner for Dune: Part One, Walker has forged notable partnerships with directors Denis Villeneuve and Steve McQueen. He’s been nominated five times for the ACE Eddie Award, winning for Arrival. A four-time BAFTA Award nominee, he is also known for his exemplary work on films such as Sicario, 12 Years a Slave and Blade Runner 2049. Next up for the busy editor is his fifth collaboration with Villeneuve: Dune: Part Two, in theaters March 3.
Walker’s collaboration with Steve McQueen on four films began with McQueen’s debut feature Hunger in 2008, Shame in 2011 and Academy Award best picture winner 12 Years a Slave in 2013 (which earned Walker his first Oscar, ACE Eddie Award and BAFTA Award nominations). Widows followed in 2018.
In addition to Dune: Part One and Part Two, Walker’s collaboration with Denis Villenueve includes three back-to-back features, beginning with Sicario in 2015, Arrival in 2016 (which earned him his second Oscar and BAFTA nominations and his first ACE Eddie Award win) and Blade Runner 2049 in 2017, for which he received BAFTA and ACE Eddie Award nominations.
In 2010, Walker cut the acclaimed documentary feature Life in a Day for Academy Award-winning director Kevin Macdonald and producer Ridley Scott. The ambitious project was filmed by YouTube users across the globe over a single day in July 2010. Walker cut the film from over 4,500 hours of submitted footage to shape the documentary time capsule, which debuted at Sundance in 2011.
Walker learned his craft in the BBC’s Film Department at Ealing Studios. He had studied and composed music for many years, so it was a natural progression to break into the field as a sound editor, where he spent much of his early career until he segued into film editing. As a film editor, Walker began his career working on numerous British television series such as Jonathan Creek and The Lakes before moving into features like crime thriller Brighton Rock, Harry Brown starring Michael Caine and Rupert Wyatt’s The Escapist.
He received his B.A. in music from the University of York, which awarded him an honorary Doctorate in 2019. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra has played his music live in Trafalgar Square. He wrote the score for the BBC/HBO drama Dirty War. London-born and raised, Walker now makes his home in Los Angeles.
PAUL LAMBERT (Visual Effects Supervisor) is a three-time Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor with more than 25 years of experience in the motion picture industry. He won his Oscars consecutively with Blade Runner 2049, First Man and Dune. He has collaborated with some of the most acclaimed directors in Hollywood and has also won, and been nominated for, multiple BAFTAs, EMMYs and VES awards.
Throughout his career, Lambert has excelled in combining both the creative and technical aspects of visual effects, and many novel techniques and memorable visuals have originated from his projects. Notably, he is the sole inventor of the blue-screen keying algorithm “IBK,” which is used in Nuke, the visual effects industry’s compositing software of choice.
JACQUELINE WEST (Costume Designer) has earned Academy Award nominations for her work on Killers of the Flower Moon, Dune, The Revenant, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Quills. For Killers of the Flower Moon, Dune and Benjamin Button, she also received BAFTA and Costume Designer Guild Award nominations, winning the Costume Designer Guild Award for Sci-Fi/Fantasy for Dune. West received another Costume Designer Guild Award nomination for Argo.
After graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, West followed in the footsteps of her mother, a popular avant-garde fashion designer in the 1940’s and 50’s. From 1988 to 1997, West ran her own company and designed a nationally acclaimed line of clothing. West went on to own retail stores in the Bay Area and contemporary departments in Barney’s New York and Tokyo.
West’s first foray into film, as a creative consultant on Henry and June, was the start of a long relationship with award-winning director Phillip Kaufman. This led to future projects with such illustrious filmmakers as Terrence Malick, David Fincher, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Ben Affleck, Denis Villeneuve, and Martin Scorsese. She has done five films with Malick starting with The New World and including The Tree of Life, To the Wonder, Knight of Cups, and Weightless.
She also designed Live By Night for Ben Affleck, The Gambler for Rupert Wyatt, Water for Elephants for Francis Lawrence, The Social Network for David Fincher, and State of Play for Kevin MacDonald amongst others.
West serves on the Advisory Board of the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, and spends her time among Los Angeles, her ranch in Deadwood, South Dakota, and Aix en Provence, France.
RICHARD KING (Supervising Sound Editor) is an award-winning Sound Designer/Supervising Sound Editor. King has won four Academy Awards for Dunkirk, Inception, The Dark Knight, and Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World and was nominated for 4 others – Oppenheimer, Maestro, Interstellar, and War of the Worlds. In addition, he has won three Bafta Awards for Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World, Inception and Dunkirk as well as four MPSE awards and the MPSE Career Achievement Award.
King has had the good fortune to work with many world class directors, including Sam Shepard, Nicolas Roeg, M. Night Shymalan, Robert Altman, Paul Thomas Anderson, William Friedkin, Peter Weir, Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan, Patty Jenkins, and Denis Villeneuve.
His most recent credits include Oppenheimer and Maestro.
HANS ZIMMER (Composer) has scored more than 500 projects across all mediums, which, combined, have grossed more than 28 billion dollars at the worldwide box office. Zimmer has been honored with two Academy Awards, three Golden Globes, four Grammys, an American Music Award, and a Tony Award.
His work highlights include Dune: Part One, Top Gun: Maverick, No Time to Die, Gladiator, The Thin Red Line, As Good as It Gets, Rain Man, The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Thelma and Louise, The Last Samurai, 12 Years A Slave, Blade Runner 2049 (co-scored with Benjamin Wallfisch) and Dunkirk, as well as multiple seasons of David Attenborough’s Prehistoric Planet, including the upcoming third season, and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two, the follow-up to his Academy Award-winning score for Dune: Part One.
Beyond his award-winning compositions, Zimmer is a remarkably successful touring artist, having just concluded his second “Hans Zimmer Live” European tour and performing in the Middle East at Dubai’s renowned Coca-Cola Arena for two consecutive nights as well as Formula 1’s Singapore Grand Prix. His “World of Hans Zimmer” tour, which he curated and directed, will start its latest European run of over 50 dates this March on the heels of Dune: Part Two’s release.