If you haven’t caught Dune: Part Two yet, you’re in for a treat. Epic desert battles, vicious intergalactic scheming, giant subterranean worms… it’s got ‘em all. Plus, a cast that features at least two of your favourite actors (Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Stellan Skarsgård) and one of literally everyones’ in Christopher Walken.
In common with most, our review is glowing (read it here), with the film’s widescreen real-world landscapes and striking sets drawing particular praise. Director Denis Villeneuve’s imagining of Frank Herbert’s seminal sci-fi tomes finds new majesty as his blockbuster settles on the lethal, sand-encrusted planet of Arrakis, where the last surviving members of the Atreides dynasty, Paul (Chalamet) and his mum Lady Jessica (Ferguson), assimilate with the wary Freman people, with Zendaya’s Chani to the fore. Epic-scaled guerilla warfare kicks off as the evil Harkonnen clan attempts to secure its precious spice harvest.
To film it, Villeneuve headed back to the deserts of Jordan, with its striking, wind-carved rock formations, augmented by a location in the UAE, soundstages in Hungary and even a first location in Italy to build out his sci-fi franchise as the story expands.
Where was Dune 2 filmed?
The first location used was a world away from the desert sands that have become a Dune mainstay. Brion Tomb in Altivole, Italy, is one of architect 20th century architect Carlo Scarpa’s masterworks, a burial ground that was used for Kaitain scenes with Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh) and Reverend Mother Mohiam (Charlotte Rampling) in July 2022.
It’s the first time a film has been allowed to shoot there, explains producer Tanya Lapointe. ‘[We] reached out to the Brion family and asked, ‘Would it be possible to film on location?’ They had always said no, but the Brion family happened to have read “Dune” by Frank Herbert, and had loved the film directed by Denis Villeneuve, and they allowed us to film within this location.’
Abu Dhabi was another new Dune location. Liwa Oasis, about four hours’ drive from Dubai on the Saudi border, was both a location and an inspiration for the movie. ‘I designed all the shoots according to the landscape,’ the filmmaker tells The National News. ‘It influenced the way we shot the movie tremendously.’
Jordan was used widely in the first Dune, and for the sequel Villeneuve and his team found new locations in the country to backdrop its story of insurgency and assimilation. One was the Al-Siq gorge near Wadi Araba. Wadi Rum, the Unesco World Heritage site used in the first Dune, was used again, with its famous ‘Valley of the Moon’ backdropping the Freman struggle against the Harkonnen.
The sequel used 40 percent more sets than the first film, an altogether bigger canvas requiring vast studio space. Enter Budapest’s Origo Film Studios and the vast Hungexpo exhibition hall, 10,000 square feet of studio ripe to be reimagined as the Harkonnen’s black-and-white homeland of Giedi Prime. ‘It gave us the opportunity to build sets to our scale for Giedi Prime and the Imperial tent and a few other sets,’ says producer designer Patrice Vermette. ‘And even some stuff was too big to fit that, but we learned tricks from Part One to go beyond the physical space.’
Where was Dune 1 filmed?
The first Dune saw Villeneuve following in the footsteps of David Lean, Ridley Scott and others in using the parched, almost Martian landscapes of Jordan’s Wadi Rum to stand in for his desert planet. As with Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia, the vast expanse of sand led to some continuity issues involving rogue footprints and only solved with a lot of painstaking sand-brushing. ‘I learned so much making Dune,’ he told Time Out, ‘but I learned that bringing a film crew into the desert and footprints – as stupid as it sounds – was nightmarish.’
Also on the slate for the first film was Stadlandet in Norway, which played host to the Atreides’ home planet of Caladan.
Will there be a Dune Part 3?
You don’t need to be a member of the Bene Gesserit to foresee that an eye-popping opening weekend of $178 million makes giving the green light for a third Dune film all the more appealing – even with a conservative studio regime like that of Warner Bros. under CEO David Zaslav. (The movie is yet to open in China and Japan, so that figure will keep heading northward fast.)
The introduction of a new character, played by a major actor, in a brief cameo in Dune: Part Two hints that Villeneuve is already thinking beyond Part Two and onto the next instalment, likely to be based on Herbert’s 1969 novel ‘Dune Messiah’.
But a green light hasn’t been given yet and Villeneuve is reluctant to get ahead of himself. He’s been cautiously optimistic in interviews but is still at an early stage of the writing process and is tight-lipped on when it might happen or where it might take us. ‘I do not like to comment on Dune Messiah because I’m writing it, and when I’m writing, I love to shut up because it’s a very delicate time where things are fragile, ideas evolve,’ he tells Den of Geek. ‘I like to talk about movies when they are alive, finished, and strong enough to walk by themselves. Dune Messiah is barely an embryo.’
How much did the films cost to make?
The film’s budget is estimated to come in at just shy of $300 million, including $100 million in marketing and promotion. Turning a significant profit will take some time yet, although as the hefty queue for tickets at your local IMAX indicates, the Oppenheimer-like enthusiasm to see it on the biggest possible screen bodes well. ‘It’s really permeated the culture,’ Dune producer Mary Parent tells Variety. ‘All signs point toward a long play.’
If they can somehow extend Rebecca Ferguson’s ridiculously iconic Dune: Part Two press tour by five or six months, they really will be cooking.
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