SAND AND DELIVER

Return to Arrakis for the epic conclusion to Denis Villeneuve’s Dune adaptation.

Zendaya discusses the importance of sunscreen with her co-star, Timothée Chalamet

This second film is not a sequel,’ director Denis Villeneuve says of his highly anticipated follow-up to 2021’s Dune. ‘It’s really a second part of the same film.’ That much is plain to see when Villeneuve treats Total Film to an early glimpse of Dune: Part Two’s thrilling opening 12 minutes which, following a brief pre-title sequence, picks up right after Part One’s inconclusive final moments.

‘The first movie was more meditative and contemplative. We were following a young man discovering a new planet, a new culture,’ Villeneuve says. ‘The second movie… it’s more of an action film than the first part. It’s more muscular.’ To that end, the director and his Oscar-winning cinematographer Greig Fraser shot 100% of Dune: Part Two with IMAX cameras (in contrast to just 35-40% of Part One) – the only way to do justice to the film’s enormovision worm-riding sequences. ‘It was, by far, one of the most technically complex scenes I have done in my life,’ Villeneuve notes of Paul’s trailer-teased first ride.

Alongside returning, star-crossed rebels Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and Chani (Zendaya) – who becomes the ‘point of view’ character as the movie progresses – Villeneuve has added Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken and Léa Seydoux to an already stacked supporting cast, as well as his ‘secret weapon’ Austin Butler, who plays the deadly Harkonnen fighter Feyd-Rautha. But it won’t be wall-to-wall action. In fact, Villeneuve says ‘I think it’s a much more emotional experience, and one of – if not the – most emotional movies I’ve made.’

Mirroring the trajectory of the novel, Part Two will fully embed Paul and his mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) in Fremen culture, while breaking with Herbert to beef up the presence of both Jessica and the shadowy Bene Gesserit sisterhood. ‘At the end of the day, [Jessica] is the puppet master of this story,’ Villeneuve points out. ‘I really wanted to make sure that her character would be prominent in the second part.’

Javier Bardem, who signed up for Part One primarily on the promise of Part Two, puts it well. ‘In my opinion, the first one, which is an amazing movie, is like the appetiser. It’s where Denis puts the cards on the table for us to understand the game, and, on this second one, we are playing the game with no limits.’