Denis Villeneuve doesn’t see himself staying on Arrakis beyond Messiah.
Dune and Dune: Part Two director Denis Villeneuve has long been clear that he’s interested in adapting Dune: Messiah for the screen, but when it comes to the other books in Frank Herbert’s Dune series, that may not be the case. Speaking with Vanity Fair, Villeneuve said that if he does get to make Dune: Messiah, he’ll be ready to “do something else” after — though he’s certainly not opposed to seeing someone else take on that world after him. Villeneuve explained that books beyond Messiah are tricky to adapt, but that it would be good for him to plant seeds in Messiah for future filmmakers.
“Listen, if Dune: Messiah happens, it will have been many years for me on Arrakis, and I would love to do something else,” Villeneuve said. “I think that it would be a good idea for me to make sure that, in Messiah, there are the seeds in the project if someone wants to do something else afterwards, because they are beautiful books. They are more difficult to adapt. They become more and more esoteric. It’s a bit more tricky to adapt, but I’m not closing the door. I will not do it myself, but it could happen with someone else.”
Villeneuve also revealed that he’s currently working on the script for Dune: Messiah, but he also explained that he doesn’t see Dune, Dune: Part Two, and Dune: Messiah as a real trilogy. For Villeneuve, Messiah has “its own identity”.
“First, it’s important that people understand that for me, it was really a diptych,” he explained of the first two films. “It was really a pair of movies that will be the adaptation of the first book. That’s done and that’s finished. If I do a third one, which is in the writing process, it’s not like a trilogy. It’s strange to say that, but if I go back there, it’s to do
something that feels different and has its own identity.”
Currently, Dune: Messiah hasn’t yet been officially greenlit by Warner Bros. Given that Dune: Part Two was a huge success both at the box office and with critics earlier this year, it seems likely that Dune: Messiah will eventually get the official go-ahead — though Villeneuve has previously expressed that he won’t make a third movie unless it’s better than Part Two.
“I did both movies back to back, which makes absolute sense for me,” Villeneuve said previously. “I felt that it was a good idea to move forward right after Part One. We were already designing, writing et cetera. But it also meant that for six years I was on Arrakis non-stop, and I think it will be healthy to step back a little bit. First, make sure that we have a strong screenplay. The thing I want to avoid is not having something ready. I never did it, and now I feel it could be dangerous because of the enthusiasm. We need to make sure all the ideas are on paper.”
He added, “If we go back, it needs to be real, it needs to be relevant, if ever I do Dune: Messiah, [it’s] because it’s going to be better than Part Two. Otherwise, I don’t do it.”
