Connect with Deadline online!
https://www.facebook.com/deadline/
https://twitter.com/DEADLINE
https://www.instagram.com/deadline/
https://www.facebook.com/deadline/
https://twitter.com/DEADLINE
https://www.instagram.com/deadline/
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00The first Dune released in 2021 was one of the highest-grossing films during COVID, grossing
00:14over $408 million and earning six Oscar wins, including a nomination for Best Picture.
00:21Dune Part II kicked off this box office year, grossing $714 million worldwide.
00:28The film stars Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya in the continuing sci-fi saga based on Frank
00:34Herbert's classic novel about the gifted Paul Atreides, who was on a warpath against the
00:39conspirators who destroyed his family in a universe that's obsessed with a mystical commodity
00:46known as the Spice.
00:49Here's a clip.
00:50Do you think you could have a chance?
01:17Do you think you could have a chance?
01:43Do you think you could have a chance?
02:09Do you think you could have a chance?
02:39This is my father's ducal signet.
02:54I am Paul-Muad'Dib Atreides, Duke of Arrakis.
03:30Let's welcome our guests, the screenwriter of Dune Part II, Oscar-nominee John Spates,
03:40and three-time Oscar-nominated director, writer, and producer of Dune Part II, Denis Villeneuve.
03:54So gentlemen, it has been notoriously said that Frank Herbert's classic novel is unadaptable.
04:02What do you say to that?
04:06It's almost true.
04:07No, but John and I made some bold choice on the page that allowed us to...
04:14So technically, if we had adapted the novel as it is, we will not be here.
04:19We will be dead by now.
04:21It's like, it is unadaptable.
04:23Yeah, it was necessary to make choices and to leave behind things that we as deep fans
04:31of the novel love desperately in order to tell a strand of story that can fit into two
04:37epic films.
04:38And even that was hard work.
04:41Talk about getting to the landing of its ending and making it something that spoke to today's
04:49world.
04:52Frank Herbert himself made a tremendous adjustment in his fictional world around the ending of
04:58Dune.
04:59He always intended the book as a cautionary tale about messiahs, about charismatic leaders,
05:05about the dangers of blending politics and religion.
05:08But the ending of Dune, as it was first written, was interpreted by some as a kind of white
05:12savior story, was patriarchal.
05:16And he had regret about that, so much so that he wrote an entire book to correct course
05:21in Dune Messiah.
05:23And our way forward into the book and to handle the ending of Dune was to be informed by his
05:28own course correction and the light that he shed on his own work.
05:33Now I remember with the production of the first film, you shot in Jordan, you returned
05:39there, but it was, you could not shoot during the day.
05:45You had to shoot in the early morning or overnight.
05:49Can you talk about more of the hurdles you faced or were there none?
05:54Was everything, was this an easier walk than part one?
05:57Oh no, no, no.
05:58It was much more ambitious and more difficult.
06:02We learned a lot by doing part one.
06:04We could say that part one was almost like a massive rehearsal for the second one.
06:08I mean, we learned so much.
06:12And it's true that when we went, we shot in Jordan, we shot also in Abu Dhabi.
06:17And in Abu Dhabi, when we came there, went there for the first time, it was at a certain
06:22period of the year.
06:23We were aware of that, we were going there for the mornings and evenings.
06:28During the time it was too hot, when we went back there, we had to shoot a lot of weeks,
06:35a few months there.
06:36So we went to another season where it was a tiny bit cooler.
06:41But yeah, no, it's shooting in the desert is, don't try this at home.
06:49It's intense.
06:50It's incredibly inspiring and rewarding.
06:54I mean, I'm the sole, I cannot complain, I'm the sole responsible for that.
06:57I'm the one who insisted.
07:00But it's taxing on the crew, definitely it's a difficulty.
07:05What was magical about Jordan though?
07:08Because it's not only your film, but Force Awakens has been shot there.
07:12Is it just this breathtaking?
07:15It's where they shot, that's where the birth of the story of Lawrence of Arabia.
07:23And that's where David Lean shot Lawrence of Arabia.
07:26And it's that story inspired Frank Herbert, wasn't one of the stories that inspired Frank
07:31Herbert to write Dune.
07:33So it made it, and I had shot there previously, myself, a feature film where I remember in
07:412009, when I was scouting there, I was saying to myself, if ever I do a sci-fi movie like
07:47Dune, that needs to happen here.
07:50Because the rock formation there are out of this world.
07:53It's really impressive.
07:55And it offered us a tremendous dramatic landscape that were perfect for the movie.
08:01It is Arrakis, that place on earth.
08:05How many days were you in the desert this time versus, say, the production on the first
08:10film?
08:11I think that in the first film, we went in the desert like maybe the fifth of the shoot
08:17and there we were half of the shoot.
08:19I mean, it's like many weeks.
08:22And you know, we can't ignore Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya.
08:27What is it about them?
08:29Talk about their chemistry.
08:31Talk about, you know, the best two stars.
08:36Like what a great couple.
08:37Yeah.
08:38The thing is that what is beautiful when you work with, they met each other in part one
08:42briefly and spontaneously they became friends.
08:48And as we did the promotional tour, their relationship became, let's say, deeper, meaning
08:55they're close friends.
08:57And for me, it's a tremendous help, of course, because of the whole, John and I had structured
09:04the whole story on their relationship through the birth of the love between Paul and Shani,
09:12then the struggle of this love with the pressure from the outside, from the politics, and then
09:19the break.
09:21So all that I need.
09:22So it was all about the chemistry between what we were talking about, between them,
09:26that I had put all my chips on that.
09:30And so it was crucial to capture that on screen and bring that chemistry on camera.
09:36Going way back, did you chemistry read them or no?
09:40Separately, you knew they would...
09:42I did some tests with both of them just to see the, I had Timothee and we had met Zendaya.
09:50We did some camera tests, not to test her skills, of course, but she's a tremendous
09:56actress.
09:57But at the time I needed to know her, I wanted to see how we could establish that together
10:02and how Timothee was feeling and it was like a fantastic experience.
10:07So new to this is Austin Butler as Faye Rava.
10:11He plays a rather ruthless guy.
10:15And we're so used, I mean, we had, we've seen Austin largely be Elvis on and off camera
10:24and then he shows up in this and you don't want to cross him in an alley.
10:28And I'm just curious, how did you get him so evil?
10:35How did he make himself so evil?
10:37Did you know?
10:38I never knew Elvis could go that distant.
10:42You should ask him.
10:44I mean, it was quite a, those are big shoes to fill.
10:52It's played by Sting in the David Lynch film.
10:54We all remembered, yeah.
10:58You don't remember?
10:59The jockstrap?
11:00No, thank you.
11:01No, Austin did an incredible job to go back in that psychotic mode, that sexist, you know,
11:14sexist psychotic mode where it's like, it's a cross mix between Mick Jagger and a sociopath
11:20killer and it's, there's a, he took tremendous pleasure going there and it was like, we did
11:29a rehearsal together about the movement, like almost like a dancer, you know, how to find
11:36a character to movement because we are, I don't think Austin is a psychopath, I'm not,
11:43so to reach that level, to go there, we had to experiment, do laboratories with movement.
11:50So it's, look, this is, you're doing Dune III, even if you don't want to.
11:57No, I want you to do Dune III.
12:02My question to you is, did you, when did you know that there should be a third part?
12:13Well, the thing is, when we, I was, I decided to embark on this journey, one of the first
12:23thing I said is that it's, there's too much material and John agreed on that, there's
12:27too much material to, for one movie, for this first book, there's two movies there and everybody
12:34agreed on that quickly and I said to myself that I was seeing this as a diptych, it was
12:41really two movies and there will be a possibility of a third act, a third, sorry, a third installment
12:48where it will be finalized, a curve of the dramatic arc of Paul Atreides, but it will
12:54be different, it will be a total different object.
12:56So I don't see this as a trilogy, but yeah, I always felt that it will be a great idea
13:04to finish that story, a bit for the reason John mentioned earlier, to make sure that
13:11the ideas that Frank Herbert, his initial desires will absolutely be fulfilled on screen.
13:18And then if the sequel deals with faith in the face of politics, how does it juxtapose
13:25itself to the first, to the first film thematically?
13:34We move, as we go from part one to part two, between worlds, we follow closely the journey
13:41of Paul Atreides and he leaves behind the world of the imperium, the colonizers, the
13:49imperial resource extraction structure of the galaxy and we immerse ourselves in a thousands
13:57of year old culture embedded deep in the deserts of Arrakis and sustained against unimaginable
14:02hardships of daily life by a faith, a brutal practical religion that maintains the iron
14:10backbone of the tribe that teaches survival techniques and a way of life to every person.
14:19Religion in this context is total, it's survival, it's adaptation, it's a rule book and a law
14:25book and a guide book for living in this impossible place and the only way that Paul can mold
14:30himself into a creature that can live on Arrakis is to wrap his head around that faith, around
14:36those laws of the desert, he must adapt or die and that is what the whole film is about.
14:43He goes into it a pauper, a prince without treasure, without palace, without an army
14:50and in the desert he finds his bearings and comes out in the end playing a game of chess
14:55against the emperor himself.
14:56Dune part two.
14:59Thank you enough, John Spates.