‘Dune: Part Two’: Denis Villeneuve on religion in politics, correcting mistakes and possibility of ‘Part Three’ [WATCH]
Denis Villeneuve originally wanted to shoot both parts of his science-fiction epic “Dune” at the same time, but the production company, Legendary Pictures, didn’t want to foot the bill for part two before seeing how part one turned out. You’d think that would frustrate a filmmaker, but “it was the best thing that ever happened, that I didn’t shoot them together,” Villeneuve admitted when discussing “Dune: Part Two” with Film at Lincoln Center Vice President of Programming Florence Almozini. Watch their discussion above.
“There’s something quite rewarding for a film director when you do a first movie, and you see all the mistakes you’ve done, and then you can go back and improve yourself,” the director explained. The second film was technically “the most complicated thing I’ve ever done,” so “at one point we realized that ‘Part One‘ was a kind of major rehearsal to do ‘Part Two.'”
The subject matter of “Dune” “fascinated” the filmmaker, particularly “the alienation of religion … Where I come from, religion and politics were blended. The church had tremendous power over the population in Quebec until there was something called the Quiet Revolution in the ’60s.” Indeed, his films emphasize the dangers of religious fanaticism, with the powerful Bene Gesserit sisterhood wielding prophecy to control the population of the planet Arrakis. “Politics is about nuances and compromise and trying to find solutions together,” Villeneuve adds, “instead of the absolute black-and-white of go to hell or to paradise.”
There are several more books and a lot more story left to tell in this fictional sandbox, so the door is open to continue this saga. So can we expect “Dune: Part Three”? And if so, when? “Those movies are pretty long to do,” Villeneuve admits. “Even if I start part three tomorrow morning, we’ll still see each other in a couple of years.”
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