“Dune 2” has already been showered with much praise by film fans and the trade press (5 out of 5 stars from FILMSTARTS!), but Now a true master director has joined in singing the praises of “Dune: Part Two”: Steven Spielberg. In a Q&A with ‘Dune 2’ director Denis Villeneuve, Spielberg couldn’t stop being enthusiastic and talked about, among other things, ‘one of the most brilliant science fiction films’.
The conversation between Spielberg and Villeneuve took place as part of the podcast “The Director’s Cut” by the American directors’ union DGA. Spielberg, who himself made some very iconic science fiction films with ‘ET’, ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ and ‘Minority Report’, began his paean by including Villeneuve in the ‘not particularly long’ list of directors who also created worlds – from film pioneer Georges Méliès to Stanley Kubrick and George Lucas to Peter Jackson, James Cameron and Christopher Nolan. “I deeply believe that you are the newest member of this list,” Spielberg said.
The conversation, which you can listen to in its entirety on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts, then discussed the subject of desert, among other things. “You filmed the desert to look like an ocean,” Spielberg enthuses. “The sandworms looked like water snakes. And The sandworm riding scene is one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever seen. Ever!”
Topics included the film’s religious and messianic themes, why the film crew had to work with brooms on desert sand dunes before and after filming, and its similarities to David Lean’s desert epic “Lawrence of Arabia ” and cast member Villeneuve thinks he will most likely have a directing career (namely Chani actress Zendaya).
Spielberg would spread things around every now and then Labels such as ‘visual epic’ or ‘pure cinema’ before finally closing the conversation with perhaps the highest praise mentioned at the beginning: “That was amazing and you made one of the most brilliant science fiction films I have ever seen.”
“Dune: part two“has been in German cinemas since February 29, 2024 (and is still very successful). There is a very good chance that Denis Villeneuve will actually be able to make the planned “Dune 3” – but probably not for a few years. You can read what you can expect in “Dune 3: Messiah” in this article: