When you’re Denis Villeneuve you don’t wait for the studio’s permission, you just get on with writing the next film – which is Dune: Part III.
Denis Villeneuve is at it again. Given the uncertainty that surrounded Dune's 2021 release (due to the global pandemic and a dual release in cinemas and on streaming), you might have expected the filmmaker to play down expectations. That proved not to be the case and instead, Villeneuve embarked on a bullish press tour telling all and sundry that he was starting work on a sequel, long before Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures had actually announced they’d be funding one.
Now, Dune: Part II is all but completed and Villeneuve finds himself in another slightly odd position – with the film being delayed several months due to the ongoing actors’ strike. The release date has been pushed from November to March of next year, sparking questions about whether a March release window can be as lucrative and whether Warner Bros has been able to secure a premium formats window to match the lengthy six weeks that was said to accompany the planned November release.
Not that any of that seems to have perturbed Villeneuve, who has once again returned to his playbook by announcing to the press that he has already partly written Dune: Part III. Speaking to Empire, Villeneuve said: ‘“If I succeed in making a trilogy, that would be the dream… I will say, there are words on paper.”
Of course there are ‘words on paper’, we’d expect nothing less from Denis. Although, he also confirms that if he does get to make a third Dune film, it will be his last, adding that Frank Herbert’s further novels go in a different direction: “After that the books become more … esoteric,” he states.
Given that Villeneuve has described the second film as an “action-packed, epic war movie,” we think there’ll be enough bums on seats to warrant a third, but we’re enjoying seeing Villeneuve once more seemingly will the movie into existence. We’ll bring you more Dune updates as we hear them.
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