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Everything We Learned about Denis Villeneuve’s Dune From Empire’s Reveal Issue

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Published on September 3, 2020

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The release date for Denis Villeneuve’s Dune is coming closer, and it seems like the entire internet has been in suspense about what it’ll look like.

A first, theater-only teaser for the film has begun playing ahead of Tenet, and Warner Bros. has confirmed that a proper trailer will hit the internet next week. Ahead of its release, Empire has an entire spread that provides some new insight about what to expect from the film.

We already know a bit about what to expect from the film: Vanity Fair ran a big feature on it way back in April, which gave us with a first look at the characters and provided a bit of initial information on what’s to come. With just over a hundred days to go, the publicity machine for the film is starting to ramp up, and Empire has published a trio of features that give us some new images, and a bit more insight into the film.

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A Desolation Called Peace

A Desolation Called Peace

The first piece speaks with actor Timothée Chalamet, who plays Paul Atreides in the film, and highlights the location that they shot the fim in: The Wadi Rum desert. “That part of the Wadi Rum is so awe-inspiring, you might as well be getting chased by that cliff in the background. It wasn’t a green-screen or anything. That’s one of the most thrilling parts of the book and the movie.”

In the second, Oscar Isaac (Duke Leto) highlighted the film’s environmental and political messaging. “It’s about the destiny of a people, and the different way that cultures have dominated other ones. How do a people respond when it’s at the tipping point, when enough is enough, when they’re exploited? All those things are things we’re seeing around the world right now.”

That’s a reassuring thing to hear—Frank Herbert has long been lauded for not only his extensive worldbuilding in the novel, but the resiliency of his ideas, which brought the book to the attention of the environmental movement in the 1970s. Reading Dune today, those ideas are still fresh and relevant.

Finally, Villeneuve himself speaks to Empire—not about his film, but about David Lynch’s adaptation that came before it. He explains that he was excited to see the film, and that there were parts that he liked and didn’t like. He’s spoken before about his love of the book and that it’s always been a dream project of his, and he notes that he remembers thinking “there’s still a movie that needs to be made about that book, just a different sensibility.”

The latest edition of Empire is now on newsstands, and features two covers highlighting the members of House Atreides and the Fremen, as well as some additional images from the upcoming film.

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Andrew Liptak

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