Posted in: Dune, Legendary, Movies, Warner Bros | Tagged: denis villeneuve, dune: part two

Dune: Part Two – Denis Villeneuve Delves Into Those Final Shots

Director Denis Villeneuve details why he made the choices regarding the final shots with Chani in Dune: Part Two.

Dune: Part Two managed to do something rather impressive this year: stick the landing. The movie had a couple of things working against it, the main one being it is two halves of a whole, but by the time the credits rolled, it was pretty clear that Denis Villeneuve and his team had more or less nailed this. Dune is not an easy book to adapt, but it's interesting to look at with the benefit of hindsight. After the book was published, author Frank Herbert rather infamously did not like the fact that people didn't understand what he was trying to do with Paul to the point that he essentially ended up writing Dune: Messiah. Total Film asked Villeneuve about those final scenes with Chani, how, once he shot them, he "knew I had a movie," and how Herbert's frustrations with the public perception of the book were heavily considered when adapting the book, specifically for those final shots.

"The idea was there right at the start when we started to write this adaptation," Villeneuve said. "It all came from the knowledge that Frank Herbert was disappointed by how some people perceived the first book, thinking that it was a celebration of Paul Atreides. Herbert himself wanted to correct this perception, because he wanted it to be a warning about messianic figures, charismatic figures, people who use religion as a form of power. So, he wrote a second book called Dune Messiah."

One of the reasons that the book feels so weird is because it's less of a book and more of an extended epilogue of Herbert taking the audience by the shirt, sitting them down, and forcing them to listen to the points he was trying to make. When the first book ended, Herbert obviously had no way of knowing how people would miss the point, but Villeneuve and his team not only have that knowledge, but they have seen it play out with other characters in other forms of media. So he took that benefit of hindsight, and instead of trying to beat the audience over the head with it, he decided to use Chani as the vessel to remind everyone that Paul might be the protagonist of this book, but he's not a good guy. Villeneuve went on to talk about the benefit of hindsight with Dune: Messiah and using Chani to make sure we get the bloody point.

"Knowing that, we tried to respect his early ideas of doing a cautionary tale, making sure that this will be perceived by the audience," Villeneuve explained. "We had this idea of transforming Chani. In the book she's in the shadow of Paul, but we wanted to give Chani her own agenda here, her own beliefs, her own tale. She has a different view of the world from Paul. So, the movie was structured around their relationship, then at the start of the third act we embrace Chani's perspective more. And from her perspective, we can see where Paul deviates from his path, becoming something he was afraid to become. She becomes our moral compass. It was therefore very important to finish the movie on Chani as that's our angle, our take."

The final scenes with Chani might seem very out of left field, but it would be a bit weird to see a character that the film spent so much time making sure we knew had her own voice and place suddenly accept that she was going to be a concubine to a Emporer. How Villeneuve brings Chani and Paul back together after this ending will also make Dune: Messiah more like a complete story than an extended epilogue. It really is a perfect ending, which is hard enough on its own. But it's a perfect ending that somehow remains perfect while deviating greatly from the source material concerning one of its main characters.

Dune: Part Two – Summary, Cast List, Release Date

The saga continues as award-winning filmmaker Denis Villeneuve embarks on Dune: Part Two, the next chapter of Frank Herbert's celebrated novel Dune, with an expanded all-star international ensemble cast. The film, from Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures, is the highly anticipated follow-up to 2021's six-time Academy Award-winning Dune.

The big-screen epic continues the adaptation of Frank Herbert's acclaimed bestseller Dune with returning and new stars, including Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet (Wonka, Call Me by Your Name), Zendaya (Spider-Man: No Way Home, Malcolm & Marie, Euphoria), Rebecca Ferguson (Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning), Oscar nominee Josh Brolin (Avengers: End Game, Milk), Oscar nominee Austin Butler (Elvis, Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood), Oscar nominee Florence Pugh (Black Widow, Little Women), Dave Bautista (the Guardians of the Galaxy films, Thor: Love and Thunder), Oscar winner Christopher Walken (The Deer Hunter, Hairspray), Stephen McKinley Henderson (Fences, Lady Bird), Léa Seydoux (the James Bond franchise and Crimes of the Future), with Stellan Skarsgård (the Mamma Mia! films, Avengers: Age of Ultron), with Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling (45 Years, Assassin's Creed), and Oscar winner Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men, Being the Ricardos).

Dune: Part Two will explore the mythic journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a warpath of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, he endeavors to prevent a terrible future only he can foresee. Dune: Part Two was released on March 1, 2024, worldwide release from Warner Bros. Pictures.

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