The director of the 2021 film Dune, Denis Villeneuve has revealed why he decided to split Frank Herbert‘s landmark sci-fi novel Dune into two movies. The upcoming sci-fi film stars Timothée Chalamet, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Dave Bautista, and Stellan Skarsgard.
The official synopsis for the film is Dune, which tells the story of Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence—a commodity capable of unlocking humanity’s greatest potential—only those who can conquer their fear will survive.
In a virtual interview with Wired during the post-production of the film, Villeneuve explained why he insisted to split the novel into two films. He said that the story of this magnitude and scale would be “too much” to fit into just one film. Check out Villeneuve’s quote below:
“The decision I made right at the beginning, and everybody agreed with it, is that the book is—there’s so much to tell. It was too much for one movie. Or you make a five-hour movie and everybody hates you because it’s too long. So we decided to make it in two parts. The story of the first movie sustains itself. When you look at it, I think it’s satisfying. But to complete the story, you need a second movie.”
Dune currently holds an 89% on Rotten Tomatoes and has opened outside and Dune will be coming to theaters and on HBO Max on October 22 in the United States of America.