When the filmmaker behind E.T: Extra-Terrestrial and Jurassic Park praises your film as one of the best genre films ever made, it must feel like quite the honor.
Denis Villeneuve is now experiencing that as the iconic director Steven Spielberg sings high praises for Dune: Part Two. While interviewing Villeneuve on the latest DGA’s Director’s Cut podcast episode, Spielberg explains: “You have made one of the most brilliant science-fiction films I’ve ever seen.”
He continued the praise, gushing over Villeneuve and putting him among the ranks of some esteemed filmmaking legends: “It’s an honor for me to sit here and talk to you. Let me start by saying there are filmmakers who are the builders of worlds. It’s not a long list, and we know who a lot of them are—starting with [Georges] Méliès and Disney and Kubrick, George Lucas. Ray Harryhausen, I include in that list. Fellini built his own worlds. Tim Burton. Obviously, Wes Anderson, Peter Jackson, James Cameron, Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott, Guillermo del Toro. The list goes on but it’s not that long of a list, and I deeply, fervently believe that you are one of its newest members.”
Spielberg pointed out the desert aesthetic and one now-iconic scene of Dune: Part Two as his high points, gushing: “This is a desert-loving story, but for such a desert-loving film, there is such a yearning for water in this movie. For all the sand you have in this film, it’s really about water—the sacred waters that are yearning for green meadows and the blue water of life. You film the desert to resemble an ocean, a sea. The sandworms were like sea serpents. And that scene surfing the sandworms is one of the greatest things I have ever seen. Ever! But you made the desert look like a liquid.”
Villeneuve was gobsmacked over the compliments, but watching the two filmmakers dive into their craft is worth watching. Listen to Spielberg and Villeneuve’s entire Director’s Cut podcast conversation here.
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.
Featuring in the cast of Dune: Part Two are Timothée Chalamet (Wonka), Zendaya (Euphoria), Rebecca Ferguson (Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning), Josh Brolin (Milk), Austin Butler (Elvis), Florence Pugh (Black Widow), Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy), Christopher Walken (The Deer Hunter), Stephen McKinley Henderson (Fences), Léa Seydoux (Crimes of the Future), Stellan Skarsgård (Mamma Mia), Charlotte Rampling (45 Years), Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men) and Anya Taylor-Joy (Last Night in Soho).
