Denis Villeneuve Will Only Do One More ‘Dune’ Movie After ‘Part Two,’ Saying The Following Books Get, Well, A Little Too ‘Esoteric’

Frank Herbert’s Dune saga is a weird one to turn into a film franchise, for a number of reasons. For one, there are some huge time jumps between some of the six books, meaning there are no consistent main characters. For another, they, uh, get a little weird! Indeed, they get so weird that after Part Two comes out this fall next March, director Denis Villeneuve will only do one more movie in the series, then he’s out.

In an interview with Empire (as caught by The AV Club), Villeneuve talks about the future of the franchise and his role in it. Right now a lot is up in the air. Just getting Part Two made was enough of a pain, though there’s enough excitement for it that there are at least “words on paper” that he’ll be back for Part Three, i.e., the series’ second, much more manageable book, Dune Messiah.

“If I succeed in making a trilogy, that would be the dream,” Villeneuve said. After that, though, he’ll move on to greener, less dune-y pastures. In part, that’s because from Children of Dune on, the series, in his words, “becomes more… esoteric.”

That’s putting it mildly! Without getting too into it, Herbert’s imagination really runs rampant as the series (or his part of it; he died after writing Chapterhouse: Dune, and the story continued thanks to other writers, including his son) trudges on. Okay, here’s one thing, which is fairly well-known already: By book four, God Emperor of Dune, there’s a giant human-sandworm who f*cks. (To bring that one to freaky life, we recommend rehiring David Lynch, who almost killed his career with the first big screen take on Herbert’s classic, even though it’s also pretty good.)

For now, though, the world still has to wait — even longer than previously thought — to see how Villeneuve tackles the back half of the first book, which is way too dense for one movie anyway. Then if all works out, he’ll move onto Dune Messiah, in which Herbert made explicit that what Paul Atreides did in the first book ain’t so grand — ideas Villeneuve seems to already be exploring in the second part of his adaptation.

Dune: Part Two [sigh] doesn’t hit theaters until March 15. Alas, it’s not the only Zendaya movie to get bumped due to the two-pronged Hollywood strikes.

(Via Empire and The AV Club)