(Courtesy of The Industry newsletter)
Denis Villeneuve loves enigmas.
The spiders in Enemy. Benicio Del Toro’s silence in Sicario. Ryan Gosling’s past in Blade Runner 2049.
With the sprawling, vivid release of the new Dune 2 (trailer), it remains to be seen whether Villeneuve can land the ending of the elliptical first Dune film.
The director has always had a penchant for puzzles. His sophomore feature, Maelström, directed 25 years ago, was narrated by a fish (trailer).
But it was the release of Enemy (2013) that implanted the idea that Villeneuve reveled in the unanswerable.
The film is centered around Jake Gyllenhaal meeting a man who looks exactly like himself in a way that ensnares viewers to parse whether Gyllenhaal is a twin, on the verge of a psychological break, or experiencing a rift in reality.
Villeneuve said:
“I love when ideas are so mysterious that you lose your equilibrium.”
Arrival (2016) although chronologically disorienting, provided audiences with clearer answers. The extraterrestrials in the film were the most meticulously researched aliens since Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Villeneuve's adaptation of the first three of Frank Herbert's Dune novels ambitiously takes on interstellar politics, ecological intricacies and diverse universes. This project, once deemed unfilmable, had seen previous attempts by Alejandro Jodorowsky and David Lynch.
Villeneuve said of his new film:
"For me, this film is much better than ‘Part One.’ There’s something more alive in it. There’s a relationship to the characters.”
If Denis Villeneuve achieves his aim, Dune 2 will invite us into a world where the allure of the unknown coexists with the clarity of human emotion.
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Even though I'm an admitted fan of Lynch's DUNE, Villeneuve's was amazing. Cannot wait to see this film Geoff Hall!
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love this book series, can't wait to see part 2!
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Die-hard fan of DUNE. Villeneuve's vision is bloody brilliant. And as a Filipino, the use of Balintawak Eskrima in the knife fighting scenes just won me over.
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Great post. Thanks for sharing Geoff Hall. Really looking forward to this one. I have to say that I think my favorite of his films is Prisoners.
The trailer looks incredible, Geoff Hall! And gorgeous! I haven't seen "Dune" (2021), but I watched "Dune" (1984) growing up. I don't remember what happened in the 1984 version though. I'll probably watch "Dune" (1984) and "Dune" (2021) before seeing "Dune 2."
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Maurice Vaughan that sounds like a plan, Maurice. Dune (1984) was not a completed story, if I recall correctly, so I think it’s difficult to judge. And yes, the cinematography in Villeneuve’s version is stunning.
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Francisco Castro hey, Francisco, that’s quite a bio you’ve written. Staffed on Without a Trace, that’s great. We are just going through it here in the UK. We love Anthony LaPaglia. And from The Philippines too. I have friends over there and I’m also writing an episode of my animated fantasy series based in Quezon City.
I too am a lover of Denis Villeneuve. May his star continue to rise!
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Nick Waters me to, Nick. Although I was disappointed that the release was put back to 2024. Can’t wait to see it though.
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Sam Sokolow as weird as it was, I too loved the Lynch version, Sam.
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As long as we're discussing DUNE, who has seen the documentary, JODOROWSKY'S DUNE? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0cJNR8HEw0
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Francisco Castro it looks fascinating, Francisco!