Whereas 2021 featured some superb films that we’ll all be watching for a few years to come back, for me there was one movie that stood above the whole lot, and that was Denis Villeneuve’s Dune. Whereas Villeneuve has proven his present behind the digital camera on his earlier movies like Arrival, Sicario, and Blade Runner 2049 (simply to call just a few), what he did on Dune was astounding. Every time I’ve seen the movie I’ve felt like I used to be transported to the opposite facet of the galaxy, attending to witness Paul Atreides’ journey as a silent observer. I can not suggest this movie sufficient.
Final week I received to talk with Villeneuve for the primary time about Dune. Throughout the interview, he talked in regards to the ten Oscar nominations, why he’ll by no means launch any of the deleted scenes, if the 2 hour and thirty-five-minute runtime was a studio requirement, the way in which he works with cinematographer Greig Fraser, and which of his movies modified probably the most within the enhancing room and why. As well as, Villeneuve talked about Dune Half II, how the script is completed, if he feels extra stress engaged on the sequel than the primary movie, if Dune may find yourself being three films, and extra.
Take a look at what he needed to say under.
COLLIDER: If somebody has truly by no means seen something that you have directed, what’s the very first thing you need them watching and why?
DENIS VILLENEUVE: Wow, that is a lovely query. Hmm. I believe it could be Incendies, as a result of it is the primary time that I directed a film the place I did really feel that I used to be extra accountable for the language and that the type of the film felt like I lastly arrived house. So I actually really feel that that is the film that’s the delivery of my maturity as a filmmaker, I’d say. Earlier than it was extra experiments, however Incendies was the primary time that I made a film that I used to be like, I discovered my floor.
Which of your movies truly modified probably the most within the enhancing room?
VILLENEUVE: There is a film that I did simply earlier than Incendies known as Polytechnique that we needed to shuffle with the construction quite a bit as a result of there have been a number of tales, and I made a decision to take away one among them out of the storyline, so that may be a film that basically modified quite a bit within the enhancing room.
What’s it like for you, as a result of clearly you began your profession hoping to make films, and now you are at a spot the place I’d say that in the event you determined you wished to make a film, somebody would come together with the financing and say, “We need to work with you.” What’s it like reaching that stage?
VILLENEUVE: There’s positively a freedom that comes with expertise that I am having fun with quite a bit proper now.
With Dune, lots of people checked out it as a danger. Now the movie has 10 Oscar nominations, $400 million worldwide throughout a worldwide pandemic. What does it really feel prefer to you to be each critically, commercially, and the complete trade loving the film?
VILLENEUVE: It is a aid, as a result of once you embark on a journey as a movie director, it is all the time like placing your crew into a ship and telling them that we’re going to all uncover America, and also you hope that you’ll cross the ocean and that the boat will not sink. There’s so many individuals working laborious to make a film and so many cash invested, so in fact it is a aid to know that the film was properly obtained.
I’ll say that my focus now’s like, I am not having the time to understand that success. I am specializing in the second half proper now which brings plenty of anxiousness, so I haven’t got the time to actually absolutely obtain and admire that.
However I’ll say about danger, I really feel that it is a part of the artistic journey. It is a part of the method. Each film ought to be, in its personal proper, contain danger, plenty of danger. I believe that is a part of the artistic course of. I like to put all my chips on the identical quantity. I really like to leap and not using a security internet after I make a film. It is a part of the way in which, and I believe it is in all probability the identical for each filmmaker.
Do you are feeling truly extra stress engaged on the sequel than you probably did making the primary movie?
VILLENEUVE: I’d say it is comparable stress. The primary one, it was extra to make it possible for we’ll land on the earth and that the film shall be accepted. Now it is to make it possible for we are able to shut that first e-book, so it is like there’s some premises which can be within the first film that I must ignore. So yeah, I believe I’d say there’s extra stress with the second in some methods.
I’ve heard you speak about eager to make three films. I’ve heard you speak about simply doing a sequel. What precisely is in your head proper now by way of the long run and also you with Dune?
VILLENEUVE: I’d say that to start with, I do not just like the phrase sequel for the half two, as a result of it is actually like a second half. It isn’t like if I used to be doing one other story or one other second. It is actually the second a part of a much bigger story, and I am solely 100% targeted on that second half. I am not somebody that may multitask. I like to utterly give attention to one undertaking at a time.
Now I may envision a 3rd film and to make the difference of Dune Messiah that can full Paul Atreides’s story that I believe would make sense. However every film, these films are monsters, and I can solely do one by one. If I survive Dune Half Two, then I’d do the Messiah. Once I begin to consider that, I get drained. It is an excessive amount of. I must give attention to one undertaking at a time, to be sincere. However Half Three shall be…I am ensuring that Half Three shall be doable.
Is it known as Dune: Half Two?
VILLENEUVE: The second shall be known as Dune: Half Two. Sure.
I beloved your collaboration with Joe Walker within the enhancing room, and I really like speaking to administrators about enhancing as a result of it is in the end the place all of it comes collectively, and I have been ready to ask you this. Did you and Warner Brothers ever talk about what was the utmost runtime that they felt comfy with? Or was it all the time you pondering, “I need to make a two hour, 35 minute film.” I am simply curious if there was some kind of dialog.
VILLENEUVE: At the start my dedication was to make a film that was round two hours and half-hour or a bit bit below as a result of my earlier film, which had been Blade Runner 2049 was shut to a few hours, and I reassured everyone, saying that I’d. However I used to be feeling the true reply is that myself, I used to be feeling that it was a narrative that might maintain two hours and 25 to half-hour, one thing like that. I dedicated to that, and it is fantastic.
By the way in which, I do not imagine in movie size. I imagine that every film has a size that it ought to have, and that film has the size, the proper size for the story we’re telling. I made a function movie as soon as that was 70 minutes, and I made one other function movie that was three hours. For me it is in regards to the story you’re telling. They’re all totally different. However Dune, once we wrote the screenplay, and I used to be studying the screenplay in my thoughts, it was just like the film that ought to final between 2:20 and a pair of:30. It was the deal I had made with everyone.
However then you might have followers like me who would like to see issues that possibly did not make the ultimate lower. So, I simply must ask you, is there ever an opportunity down the highway that you’d launch deleted scenes, or something that was lower won’t ever be seen?
VILLENEUVE: No, as a result of after I lower one thing out of the movie, and actually, there are some scenes, one particularly that it nonetheless breaks my coronary heart. There was a bit second with Stilgar within the desert that I am nonetheless mourning, however after I tried to place it again within the movie, it deflates the momentum. When a scene is on the reducing ground, it is useless. I do not like deleted scenes. I do not imagine in that. What you see on display screen is the film I wished to make, and it is extra pure this manner.
One of many many issues I really like about Matt Reeves’s, Batman, is that it is a three-hour film, and the field workplace success exhibits folks will watch it. Do you envision Half Two, is that one thing that may very well be longer than two and a half hours?
VILLENEUVE: My feeling is that it’ll be just like the half one. I can not touch upon that but. The film’s not shot. And I have not seen, by the way in which, The Batman but, and I am trying ahead to see it. I am about to see it quickly. I am very excited to look at what Matt and Greig did collectively.
Talking of Greig Fraser…how a lot are you guys on set determining pictures, and the way a lot is storyboarded prematurely?
VILLENEUVE: The factor is that in a film like Dune it depends upon the scenes. A lot of the film was storyboarded to offer indications for schedule and for the crew to know the place we had been going. However I all the time strive, extra particularly for scenes, the extra complicated scenes, the emotional, complicated scenes with actors, to maintain some form of freedom. So it is a form of stability the place we go along with the storyboards, and if ever one among us finds a greater shot on the day or a greater thought, we simply throw the storyboard within the trash.
However it’s a film that was heavy storyboarded. I used to be feeling that for me there was a option to discover the language and likewise to deliver even nearer the screenplay to me. By the way in which, even after I learn the screenplay myself, it is a course of to storyboard. It is a new manner of writing the film once more. And as soon as the film’s storyboarded, I’m going again to the screenplay, and I rewrite the screenplay in keeping with the storyboards. It is a option to make the writing transfer ahead.
So I’d say this. For me storyboarding is extra about writing the film than capturing it. It is a option to discover new concepts, to know the visible language of the film’s extra outlined, and I discover actually tons of concepts or new concepts as I am storyboarding. As soon as it is carried out, the capturing course of may be totally different from the storyboards, however the concepts are there. I even story screenplay concepts.
I learn that you just storyboarded Dune once you had been 14 years outdated with a pal. Did any of these concepts from once you had been that age find yourself within the film?
VILLENEUVE: It was stunning drawings made by a pal of mine and some storyboards, however we did not storyboard the entire film. It was just some little moments, and it is true that we did that. And there is one shot that I did not do partially one, however I’ll attempt to introduce partially two, one shot that was storyboarded by him.
I really like that. What was the very last thing that you just and Joe lower out of Dune earlier than you image locked and why?
VILLENEUVE: I believe that it isn’t one thing that we lower out. It is one thing that we added on the finish. When Paul and Jamis are preventing, there is a second the place we had been listening to the voices of Bene Gesserit voices ghosts giving instructions to Paul, like a voice in his unconscious. I wished to have photos there, and I believe that there was a development that Joe had carried out. I believe that he put one of many final picture of an finish of shiny with blood on the blade at an important second. And when he put that shot there, we knew that the film was completed.
For followers that can’t watch for Dune: Half Two, in fact I want to ask you, the place are you within the scripting course of?
VILLENEUVE: The screenplay is completed principally, however it’s all the time a piece in progress. It’s going to be a piece in progress till closing lower, however I’ll say it is solidified. I’ve a script in my arms. We’re in prep proper now.
Are you prepping Dune: Half Two proper now?
VILLENEUVE: My crew, we’re in full prep for the film. And with the awards seasons, it is difficult. My mind is like, it is like two components of my mind that do not join collectively, and it isn’t straightforward to and be in prep. And I am not complaining.
One of many issues that I beloved about Dune is the way in which you used IMAX to reinforce the film, and it regarded unbelievable. Do you might have plans on doing extra in IMAX?
VILLENEUVE: Undoubtedly. It is a format that, and Greig Fraser and I, we fell in love with this format, and positively there shall be even in all probability extra IMAX footage on this film. Undoubtedly.
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