FILM · 2021 · CANADA
Dune: Part One
141 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
141 Interesting Facts About Dune: Part One
Interesting Facts (27)
- #001
David Lynch, director of the previous Dune (1984), stated that he has "zero interest" in the new movie. He cited that his issues have nothing to do with director Denis Villeneuve but with his own painful memories of making the 1984 version: "Because it was a heartache for me. It was a failure and I didn't have final cut. I've told this story a billion times. It's not the film I wanted to make. I like certain parts of it very much - but it was a total failure for me."
- #002
Hans Zimmer spent a week in the deserts of Utah alone to assimilate some of the sounds of the landscape and even the rhythm of the wind into his thinking for the score. He also created several new types of musical instruments to give the score an unearthly, almost alien feeling.
- #003
Warner Bros. had announced that the movie would be streamed on HBO Max just as it hit the theaters. Director Denis Villeneuve voiced his displeasure, claiming that the studio "might have just killed the film" and that "streaming can produce great content, but not movies of Dune's scope and scale. Warner Bros.' decision means Dune won't have the chance to perform financially in order to be viable and piracy will ultimately triumph. [...] My team and I devoted more than three years of our lives to make it a unique big screen experience. Our movie's image and sound were meticulously designed to be seen in theaters." Villeneuve compared watching the movie on a TV to trying to use a speedboat in a bath tub, and expressed concerns that releasing the film on streaming would kill its box office potential, and thereby the viability of the proposed sequel Dune: Part Two (2024). However, Warner Bros eventually made good on their promise that the sequel would be greenlit as long as the movie was successful, including the number of views on HBO Max.
- #004
In Dune (1984), all the Harkonnen were depicted as red-haired. In this movie they are all depicted as bald.
- #005
Denis Villeneuve's plans for Dune: Part One (2021) are quite ambitious, as he hopes to make it the Star Wars he never saw. In an interview, he explained that most of the main ideas of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) came from Dune, so it will be a challenge to tackle this project. Villeneuve even said, "In a way, it's Star Wars for adults." Oscar Isaac, who plays Duke Leto Atreides in the film, played Poe Dameron in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017), and Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019), and voiced Poe in Star Wars: Resistance (2018).
- #006
For the first trailer, Hans Zimmer gathered a 32-person choir via FaceTime to cover Pink Floyd's song "Eclipse" (this was in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic), with Zimmer conducting from home.
- #007
Although bagpipes are of uncertain origin, there are depictions of ancient bagpipe-like instruments from Egypt, the Middle East and Rome and documented evidence of its use in medieval Europe (England, Ireland, Scotland, Brittany, France, Spain, Portugal and Italy). They have been adopted by military forces in the Middle East for over a century - the Jordanian army having a particularly spectacular marching pipe band. And so, with the Arabic and Islamic influences of Dune, it is wholly appropriate that bagpipes should be used by the Atreides military for ceremonial purposes.
- #008
Very little is seen of the Guild Navigators, the evolved beings that control space travel utilizing the Spice that drives much of the story. The film does not show what happens in the jump from star to star or planet to planet, the only hint being the long tunnel-like crafts that smaller ships emerge from above planets. In the scene where Reverend Mother Mohiam arrives on Caladan to test Paul, the planet she travels from can be seen through the tunnel, suggesting that the journey is somehow taking place instantaneously. In Dune lore, it is indeed explained that the Guild can "fold space", meaning that the point of departure and destination are being brought very close together through quantum mechanics, so that ships can make the trip without moving at all. The complex calculations necessary for these trips can only be done by Spice-enhanced Navigators of the Guild, explaining why Spice is so vital for interstellar travel and trade, and why the Guild has the monopoly on this means of transportation.
- #009
The character of Liet Kynes, portrayed by Sharon Duncan-Brewster, has been gender-swapped from the books. The character was previously portrayed by Max von Sydow in Dune (1984) and by Karel Dobrý (as Dr. Liet Kynes) in the mini-series Dune (2000).
- #010
(at around 55 mins) The film's fight coordinator, who developed the various fighting styles seen in the film, appears as an extra when Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa) gives Paul (Timothée Chalamet) an Arrakis compass. Yuan reprises his role in Dune: Part Two (2024).
- #011
During Paul's vision of Jessica, her tattoo is the Litany Against Fear in the Fremen language.
- #012
In contrast to the prosthetic heavy characters, for Paul and Lady Jessica of House Atreides, played by Timothée Chalamet and Rebecca Ferguson, Donald Mowat kept the design clean and polished. "With Timmy and Rebecca, the makeup and hair for them is subtle. It evolves, but there is a lot more to it because they work every single day. So the continuity of their makeup and hair is so important."
- #013
The minute that Timothée Chalamet heard that Denis Villeneuve was getting involved in remaking the property, he set up Google Alerts so that he could get involved as early as possible.
- #014
The film's editor provides the voice of Paul's filmbooks about Arrakis.
- #015
Due to scheduling, the make up department didn't have a chance to do a makeup test for the Fremen character Chani, played by Zendaya, ahead of time, so Donald Mowat and his team designed her look the night before shooting. "It was simple and subtle, but still had to be thought through, you know with the little tattoos and things like that."
- #016
The producers wanted Emma Roberts to play the role of Princess Irulan, but the star gave up because of the busy schedule. The character was eventually written out to be introduced in Dune: Part Two (2024) instead.
- #017
On casting Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides, Denis Villeneuve said, "I was looking for someone with deep intelligence in their eyes, with an aristocratic charisma. I wanted someone who would look like an old soul."
- #018
During the meeting with representatives of high houses, the same pattern can be seen on Lady Jessica's dress, Reverend Mother's dress, and on the seal wax used by Bene Gesserit.
- #019
(at around 49 mins) Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin) responds to the report of the Harkonnens' huge profits with a quote: "And I shall suck at the abundance of the seas, and the treasure hid in the sand." This is a direct quote of Elder William Brewster (1566-1644), passenger on the Mayflower and a leader of the Plymouth Colony, when he gave thanks to the Lord for a neighbor's meal of clams during a famine. (In his third Dune novel, Frank Herbert employs a scrambled, but recognizable, version of Brewster's verse.) Aboard the Mayflower, Brewster probably would have known another of the Pilgrims, John Alden - an 11th great-grandfather of Brolin.
- #020
The city of Arrakeen was already created as an elaborate computer-generated 3D model by the special effects department during pre-production. This was done so that director Denis Villeneuve could make virtual walks through the city using a tablet, and could decide on what shots he wanted to have of the city.
- #021
The desert mouse Paul encounters in the open desert in both the novel and the movie wasn't in Dune (1984).
- #022
The aircraft Duncan Idaho pilots into the hangar on Caladan (at about 10 minutes) is quite asymmetrical in shape, its right side extending much farther out than its left, like a very lopsided boomerang.
- #023
Denis Villeneuve has a background in biology, having studied science at Cégep de Trois-Rivières in Quebec, and he wanted to make the sandworms "look as realistic as possible." According to Variety, "He and production designer Patrice Vermette studied various animal species to determine how the worms' skin would withstand the harsh desert environment."
- #024
The sand isn't just CGI. Denis Villeneuve pushed for real desert textures, practical dust, wind machines, and then layered VFX on top.
- #025
Oscar Isaac's character (Duke Leto) tells his son and heir, Paul, that he told his own father that he did not want the Atreides ring and its attendant responsibilities. "I wanted to be a pilot." Isaac played pilot Poe Dameron in the final Star Wars trilogy.
- #026
Hans Zimmer declined the opportunity to compose music for another major film because he wanted to focus entirely on bringing the world of Dune to life through its score.
- #027
Denis Villeneuve insisted on filming many desert sequences on location in Jordan and Abu Dhabi to give Arrakis a tangible and authentic sense of scale.
Production Story (43)
- #028
Denis Villeneuve first read Dune at age 13 and began storyboarding a film soon after.
- #029
Hans Zimmer spent a week in the deserts of Utah alone to assimilate some of the sounds of the landscape and even the rhythm of the wind into his thinking for the score. He also created several new types of musical instruments to give the score an unearthly, almost alien feeling.
- #030
Linguistics expert David J. Peterson helped create the Fremen language for the movie. He is most well-known for helping create the Game of Thrones (2011) languages of Dothraki and Valyrian.
- #031
The entire cast took large pay cuts to work on this film. Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Jason Momoa, Stellan Skarsgård, Josh Brolin, Dave Bautista, and Zendaya were paid a grand total of only $8 million. Everyone except Chalamet, Bautista, and Momoa was paid under $1 million.
- #032
Both composer Hans Zimmer and director Denis Villeneuve grew up with a deep appreciation of the novel of Dune. When Villeneuve was leaving the country to go film the movie overseas, Zimmer said to Villeneuve "Don't f*** it up." When Villeneuve returned to hand the movie over to Zimmer to score, he returned the same sentiment, "Don't f*** it up." Dune eventually earned 10 Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture, and brought home six awards, including Best Music for Zimmer.
- #033
Composer Hans Zimmer is a big fan of the novel Dune, and turned down working with frequent collaborator Sir Christopher Nolan on Tenet (2020) to score this film. For the same reason, although Denis Villeneuve was the top choice to direct the Bond film No Time to Die (2021), he turned down the offer.
- #034
Warner Bros. had announced that the movie would be streamed on HBO Max just as it hit the theaters. Director Denis Villeneuve voiced his displeasure, claiming that the studio "might have just killed the film" and that "streaming can produce great content, but not movies of Dune's scope and scale. Warner Bros.' decision means Dune won't have the chance to perform financially in order to be viable and piracy will ultimately triumph. [...] My team and I devoted more than three years of our lives to make it a unique big screen experience. Our movie's image and sound were meticulously designed to be seen in theaters." Villeneuve compared watching the movie on a TV to trying to use a speedboat in a bath tub, and expressed concerns that releasing the film on streaming would kill its box office potential, and thereby the viability of the proposed sequel Dune: Part Two (2024). However, Warner Bros eventually made good on their promise that the sequel would be greenlit as long as the movie was successful, including the number of views on HBO Max.
- #035
Denis Villeneuve previously directed Blade Runner 2049 (2017) for producer Sir Ridley Scott. That film was a sequel to Scott's Blade Runner (1982). Scott was planning to direct an adaptation of Dune in the early 1980s, but the sudden death of his brother and the long pre-production time made him decide to do Blade Runner instead. Scott's previous film Alien (1979) was written by Dan O'Bannon and designed by H.R. Giger, Chris Foss, Jean 'Moebius' Giraud, and Ron Cobb - all of whom had met each other in the early 1970s while working on Alejandro Jodorowsky's failed Dune adaptation, and brought much of their design works from that project to Alien.
- #036
This will be the third screen adaptation of Frank Herbert's epic science fiction novel of the same name, after David Lynch's Dune (1984) and the SyFy miniseries Dune (2000). An early attempt by director Alejandro Jodorowsky in the early 1970s failed to materialize due to prohibitive costs.
- #037
The producers wanted Emma Roberts to play the role of Princess Irulan, but the star gave up because of the busy schedule. The character was eventually written out to be introduced in Dune: Part Two (2024) instead.
- #038
For the first trailer, Hans Zimmer gathered a 32-person choir via FaceTime to cover Pink Floyd's song "Eclipse" (this was in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic), with Zimmer conducting from home.
- #039
Denis Villeneuve said that adapting Dune was a lifelong ambition. He expressed his interest in the project in September 2016, saying that "a longstanding dream of mine is to adapt Dune, but it's a long process to get the rights, and I don't think I will succeed". Villeneuve said that he felt he was not ready to direct a Dune movie until he had completed projects like Arrival (2016) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017), and that with his background in science fiction films, "Dune is my world." Brian Herbert, son of Frank Herbert and author of later books in the Dune series, confirmed that Villeneuve would be directing the project in February 2017.
- #040
Legendary Entertainment acquired the rights to the novel in 2016.
- #041
Hans Zimmer chose the words for the score's lyrics based on how well they sing rather than their meaning. He has said, "The professor of linguistics is probably quietly horrified by what I did. But the point isn't the understanding of the words but that someone is telling you something important."
- #042
Sir Roger Deakins was initially set to be the director of photography, having worked so successfully with Denis Villeneuve on his previous movie Blade Runner 2049 (2017). Scheduling difficulties meant that Deakins was unavailable, so Greig Fraser took up the reins. Fraser won the Oscar for Best Cinematography for his work on Dune, while Deakins won for Blade Runner 2049.
- #043
Producer Tanya Lapointe cited the Brion Sanctuary in Altivole, Italy, as the primary influence on the architecture of Caladan. It also served as the filming location for Princess Irulan's temple in Dune: Part Two (2024).
- #044
The score was recorded by Hans Zimmer during COVID-19 lockdown. Zimmer's team turned his sitting room into a studio next to his daughter's room. He recalls, "She will tell everybody that she suffers from bagpipe PTSD, because it's 5:30 in the morning and I'm still blasting away and the whole house is shaking."
- #045
According to Denis Villeneuve, most (but not all) of the main cast were his top choices. Zendaya was ultimately cast as Chani from the auditions, after she was judged to have the best character chemistry with Timothée Chalamet. Chang Chen got the role of Dr. Yueh by chance after an encounter with Villeneuve at the 2018 Cannes film festival. Josh Brolin eventually got the part of Gurney after Legendary Pictures CEO Thomas Tull suggested he meet Villeneuve while pitching a project of his own to the company. According to fight coordinator Roger Yuan, Brolin's daughter had just been born when he arrived at Yuan's place to train for his fight scenes in the movie, and he almost dropped out of the film: "He was this close to sending an email to Denis saying, 'I can't do this film, I can't do it, I can't do it!' [laughs]." Fortunately, Brolin persevered, and Yuan praised him for his perfectionism.
- #046
Denis Villeneuve's plans for Dune (2021) are quite ambitious, as he hopes to make it the Star Wars he never saw. In an interview, he explained that most of the main ideas of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) came from Dune, so it will be a challenge to tackle this project. Villeneuve even said, "In a way, it's Star Wars for adults." Oscar Isaac, who plays Duke Leto Atreides in the film, played Poe Dameron in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017), and Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019), and voiced Poe in Star Wars: Resistance (2018).
- #047
Denis Villeneuve has a background in biology, having studied science at Cégep de Trois-Rivières in Quebec, and he wanted to make the sandworms "look as realistic as possible." According to Variety, "He and production designer Patrice Vermette studied various animal species to determine how the worms' skin would withstand the harsh desert environment."
- #048
Announced as Dune, all the posters, trailers and stills titled it "Dune". The truth that it really was a preconceived first part wasn't revealed until the movie release, when the audience could see in the movie the title "Dune Part One".
- #049
Of this new adaptation, Dune (1984) producer Raffaella De Laurentiis said: "You really can't put that book in a two-hour movie. The thing they were smart about on this new one is that they did two movies." Her co-producer and father Dino De Laurentiis also admitted that he should never have relented to the studio's request to cut back the 1984 version to two hours, claiming that David Lynch's original 3-hr version was "fantastic", but after cutting out an hour, "it was not the same movie. We destroy[ed the movie in the editing room]."
- #050
In an interview with Empire Magazine, director Denis Villeneuve described the year-long process that went into designing the massive sandworms, the most iconic creatures of the Dune saga: "We talked about every little detail that would make such a beast possible, from the texture of the skin, to the way the mouth opens, to the system to eat its food in the sand. It was a year of work to design and to find the perfect shape that looked prehistoric enough." The sound designers devised special sounds for the creatures, such as a rattling sound for when the creature is holding still, figuring that this is from the baleen bristles in the mouth ticking against each other. At one point, the worm makes a deep guttural thumping sound, which they figured is the "sandworm language", and the reason why the creatures respond so fiercely to mechanical thumpers.
- #051
In an interview with BuzzFeed, Jenna Ortega revealed she auditioned for a role, she said, "I think I auditioned for Dune when I was about 15." She added that she was a big fan of the franchise and was "really exciting" because Denis Villeneuve "is one of my favorite filmmakers." Ortega admitted that although there weren't a kind of details available at the time, she's pretty sure she and Zendaya were up for the same role. "I think it was Chani. I think it was Zendaya's, but they weren't saying that. Everything was very secret," she said.
- #052
As soon as Timothée Chalamet heard that Denis Villeneuve was involved in remaking the property, he set up Google Alerts so that he could get involved as early as possible.
- #053
The additional vocalist on the musical score is Lisa Gerrard, best known as part of the Australian music duo Dead Can Dance, and for her earlier collaboration with Dune composer Hans Zimmer on Gladiator (2000). She recorded her part in a wardrobe closet during the COVID-19 lockdown. Zimmer recalls a photo she sent him showing her recording. He enjoyed the irony of "the sound meant to echo through the desert and bounce off mountains was recorded in a Brooklyn clothes closet".
- #054
Denis Villeneuve confirmed in a Vanity Fair article that his adaptation of Dune would be split into two films to ensure that the original story would be "preserved and not cut into a million pieces." However, contrary to the common practice of filming several installments back to back, only the first movie (which roughly covers the first half of the source novel) was greenlit and produced, with an optional sequel depending on how well the first film performed. A sequel was greenlit on the Tuesday after the film opened. According to production designer Patrice Vermette, the movie was originally supposed to end later in the story, but during pre-production, these final scenes were shifted to the sequel, meaning that some of the preparation for Dune: Part Two (2024) had already been done.
- #055
On casting Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides, Denis Villeneuve said, "I was looking for someone with deep intelligence in their eyes, with an aristocratic charisma. I wanted someone who would look like an old soul."
- #056
This was Denis Villeneuve's first time producing one of his films.
- #057
Denis Villeneuve confirmed in a Vanity Fair article that his adaptation of Dune will be split into two films in order to ensure that the original story would be "preserved and not cut into a million pieces." However, contrary to the common practice of filming several installments back to back, only the first movie (which roughly covers the first half of the source novel) was greenlit and produced, with an optional sequel depending on how well the first film performed. A sequel was greenlit on the Tuesday after the film opened. According to production designer Patrice Vermette, the movie was originally supposed to end later in the story, but during pre-production, these final scenes were shifted to the sequel, meaning that some of the preparation for Dune: Part Two (2024) had already been done.
- #058
Donald Mowat initially considered creating custom lenses for the blue-eyed Fremen characters. However, VFX supervisor Paul Lambert and the Visual FX department ended up digitally adding the Fremen's iconic blue eyes during post-production. Mowat explained, "we did a couple of practical lenses at first for Zendaya and then I thought, 'who am I kidding? We're in the Middle East! There are sand storms, heat, and dust. It will be a disaster!'"
- #059
The first full trailer for the film features a version of Pink Floyd's "Eclipse" by composer Hans Zimmer. This is a nod to director Alejandro Jodorowsky's proposed adaptation of Dune in the 1970s, for which he wanted the band to write the score. Jodorowsky wasn't impressed by the homage, and called the footage from the trailer "predictable".
- #060
The film takes liberty in the stillsuits being of a dark color. This makes the actors much more visible to the camera, whereas the suits in the book were of a color that made it easier to hide.
- #061
Hans Zimmer chose the words for the score's lyrics based on words that sing well as opposed to their meaning. He has said "The professor of linguistics is probably quietly horrified by what I did. But the point isn't the understanding of the words but that someone is telling you something important."
- #062
The film's clothing is based on Dune (1984): the Harkonnen soldiers wear bulky green armor, the Atreides workers wear green uniforms with high collars and kepi caps, and the Sardaukar wear full pressure suits (while in the book they wore regular military uniforms and helmets).
- #063
The language used by the Fremen, named Chakobsa in the novels, derives from real-life Arabic, although it also contains parts of French, Greek, Romani, and Slavic, including heavy alterations from Hebrew and Sanskrit.
- #064
A very close version of the main theme from Dune (1984) appears in this 2021 adaptation at 2:07:20, after a Jamis vision, when Paul and Jessica see the desert with their still-suits put on for the first time.
- #065
Of this new adaptation, Dune (1984) producer Raffaella De Laurentiis said: "You really can't put that book in a two-hour movie. The thing they were smart about on this new one is that they did two movies." Her co-producer and father Dino De Laurentiis also admitted that he should never have relented to the studio's request to cut back the 1984 version to two hours, claiming that David Lynch's original 3-hr version was "fantastic", but after cutting out an hour, "it was not the same movie. We destroy[ed the movie in the editing room]."
- #066
In an interview with BuzzFeed, Jenna Ortega revealed she auditioned for a role, she said, "I think I auditioned for Dune when I was about 15." She added that she was a big fan of the franchise and was "really exciting" because Denis Villeneuve "is one of my favorite filmmakers." Ortega admitted that although there weren't a kind of details available at the time, she's pretty sure she and Zendaya were up for the same role. "I think it was Chani. I think it was Zendaya's, but they weren't saying that. Everything was very secret," she said.
- #067
Legendary published a graphic novel adaptation written by Lilah Sturges and drawn by Drew Johnson. The cover was drawn by Bill Sienkiewicz, who also drew Marvel's adaptation of Dune (1984).
- #068
Contains a major spoiler — show
Thufir Hawat (Stephen McKinley Henderson) is last mentioned during the Harkonnen attack on Arrakeen but not seen afterwards, and his fate is kept open at the end of the movie. In the novel, Hawat is captured alive during the Harkonnen raid on the Atreides forces, and subsequently forced to serve as mentat to the Harkonnen. However, after learning that he has been unknowingly helping the Harkonnen fight Paul Atreides, he takes his own life. There were similar plans for the character in this movie adaptation, so director Denis Villeneuve purposely had kept McKinley Henderson's part in this film small, as Hawat was to become more prominent in Dune: Part Two (2024). However, much to Villeneuve's regret, Henderson's entire performance in Part Two eventually ended up on the cutting room floor when he chose to focus on other subplots, and Hawat's role started to feel superfluous. With no explicit on-screen resolution to his fate, it is thus implied that Hawat perished during the Harkonnen attack.
- #069
Contains a major spoiler — show
Originally, the movie was scripted to continue for a while after Paul and Jessica Atreides join the Fremen, with them helping the Fremen ambush a Harkonnen patrol. However, it was decided during post-production to shift these scenes to the sequel Dune: Part Two (2024) instead.
- #070
Contains a major spoiler — show
The marketing for the film hid the fact that the movie ends on a cliffhanger and only covered one part of the book on which it was based. Even its full title, 'Dune: Part One', was not revealed until the opening credits.
Behind the Scenes (26)
- #071
Another iconic character is Piter de Vries, the sadistic Mentat who serves the Baron. Donald Mowat had previously worked with David Dastmalchian and considered him an old friend. During initial discussions, Dastmalchian was prepared to shave his head for the role, but a last-minute consideration caused some uncertainty. "He called me one day and said, 'Don, I've just been cast in something. And I don't know what to do. I just can't cut my hair. I've got to do this thing.' So he confided in me, and I said we have to talk to Denis." They discussed the situation with Denis Villeneuve and determined the look could be achieved with a bald cap. Mowat then called Stephen Prouty of Fusion FX in LA. "I sent [David] over twice and he did a custom silicone cap for us. Steve also very graciously did a test for us in LA months before David was scheduled to come to Budapest to work." Once on set, Rocky Faulkner applied the cap.
- #072
Denis Villeneuve wanted Stellan Skarsgård to play Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, because even though he describes Skarsgård as a very nice man, he also admitted to being somewhat scared by the actor. Villeneuve saw the Baron as a "rhino in human form", but didn't want to resort to CGI, so Skarsgård had to spend seven hours a day applying makeup for his role as the Baron.
- #073
The film takes liberty in the stillsuits being of a dark color. This makes the actors much more visible to the camera, whereas the suits in the book were of a color that made it easier to hide.
- #074
(at around 55 mins) At around 55 minutes, the film's fight coordinator, who developed the various fighting styles seen in the film, appears as an extra when Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa) gives Paul (Timothée Chalamet) an Arrakis compass. He reprises his role in Dune: Part Two (2024).
- #075
Donald Mowat initially considered creating custom lenses for the blue-eyed Fremen characters. However, VFX supervisor Paul Lambert and the Visual FX department ended up digitally adding the Fremen's iconic blue eyes during post-production. Mowat explained, "we did a couple of practical lenses at first for Zendaya and then I thought, 'who am I kidding? We're in the Middle East! There are sand storms, heat, and dust. It will be a disaster!'"
- #076
Due to scheduling, the makeup department didn't have a chance to do a makeup test for the Fremen character Chani, played by Zendaya, ahead of time, so Donald Mowat and his team designed her look the night before shooting. "It was simple and subtle, but still had to be thought through, you know with the little tattoos and things like that."
- #077
In contrast to the prosthetic heavy characters, for Paul and Lady Jessica of House Atreides, played by Timothée Chalamet and Rebecca Ferguson, Donald Mowat kept the design clean and polished. "With Timmy and Rebecca, the makeup and hair for them is subtle. It evolves, but there is a lot more to it because they work every single day. So the continuity of their makeup and hair is so important."
- #078
The helmets of the Harkonnen soldiers were based on the heads of insects.
- #079
The character of Stilgar, played by Javier Bardem, exhibits very fine and organic scarring along his cheekbones to signify a history of violence. It's an elegant concept that Donald Mowat enjoyed creating with Bardem. "It's a new makeup for him. He's never really had that, and I had a great time working with him. It was a fantastic experience. He's a superb actor and a genuinely nice person."
- #080
More than two thousand visual effect shots were created for the film. These shots used a chroma key process that visual effects supervisor Paul Lambert called "sandscreen"; instead of using green-based backgrounds, the visual effects team used brown-colored ones that matched the establishing desert shots intended for backgrounds. The resulting shots appear more natural than with other chroma keys. The sandworms were created through computer-generated imagery, with an original design considered "prehistoric" by Lambert, inspired by whales with a mouth filled with baleen and following the underwater movements of whales. While they had considered using rigged explosives to capture the motion of the sandworms breaking the surface in the desert, this would have been impractical in the Middle East, and instead used Houdini software to have sand mimic the motion of water. Villeneuve did not want the sound associated with these special effects to sound as a studio production, and sound designers Mark A. Mangini and Theo Green used a "fake documentary realism" approach to capture natural sounds and manipulate them for use in the film, such as recording the sounds of shifting sands in Death Valley using hydrophones.
- #081
The city of Arrakeen was already created as an elaborate computer-generated 3D model by the special effects department during pre-production. This was done so that director Denis Villeneuve could make virtual walks through the city using a tablet, and could decide on what shots he wanted to have of the city.
- #082
The scenes on the ocean world of Caladan were shot in Stadlandet, Norway. Much of the desert scenes on the desert world of Arrakis were shot in the Middle East, in Jordan and Abu Dhabi. Director Denis Villeneuve had previously shot parts of Incendies (2010) in Jordan, and always felt that its desert vistas and striking rock formations would be perfect in portraying the alien world of Arrakis if he ever got the chance to make a Dune adaptation.
- #083
The sand isn't just CGI. Denis Villeneuve pushed for real desert textures, practical dust, wind machines, and then layered VFX on top.
- #084
Dave Bautista plays Glossu Rabban Harkonnen, the Baron's nephew, also known as 'Beast'. For Beast, Mowat went for an old-school theatrical painted makeup. The only prosthetics used were brow covers from Roland Blancaflor at RBFX Studio. Mowat explains, "It was a classic makeup. I had to do tattoo cover on his hands and neck, followed by a basic makeup. I used three or four colors of very traditional grease makeup. He [Bautista] arrived very late in the game, and I did one test, and Denis Villeneuve kind of loved it. Dave became one of our favorites really. He only shot six or seven days, but I loved having Dave; it was my second or third time working with him." Ultimately, Mowat went far beyond simply making the Harkonnen characters pale. He took the makeup concept closer to creating different species. "You have to be a storyteller. Sometimes you're down to the way it used to be, where you have a couple of crayons, a makeup box and a couple of pansticks, so you've got to learn how to use them. You don't always have the privilege of being on something where you have the money and the photoshopping, and you've got lots of resources. That's very much how I like to work."
- #085
Fight coordinator Roger Yuan based the fighting style of House Atreides on the Filipino martial arts of kali and escrima; since they have shorter swords, the Atreides use precise fighting techniques that work specifically for their weapons. To make House Harkonnen seem barbaric, Yuan based their fighting style on ancient Mongolian fighting styles from the Genghis Khan era, which have a bestial and sadistic quality, with movements that are efficient but not very precise or stylized. According to Yuan, the Sardaukar in this adaptation are inspired by two different warrior cultures: the samurai of feudal Japan, and the úlfhéðnar guard (Viking Berserkers) of the Norwegian king Harald Fairhair; the samurai-influence being the Sardaukar's fighting style and them also being an elite military caste, while the úlfhéðnar-influence is the Sardaukar as a fanatical warrior cult practicing blood sacrifice and blood anointment before battle.
- #086
The bagpipe player, playing a ceremonial piece at the Atreides' arrival on Arrakis, is played by Hans Zimmer, the movie's composer and avid fan of the novel. However, the initial bagpipe sound during the scene is actually played by Guthrie Govan, an English-Scottish musician who tours with Zimmer on his musical concerts, who imitated the sound of a bagpipe using a guitar.
- #087
From the start, Donald Mowat and director Denis Villeneuve knew that realizing the character of Baron Harkonnen was going to be a mighty task, as the Baron is the antagonist of the story and ruler of the House of Harkonnen. Villeneuve started the conversation by describing his inspiration of 'pale alopecia' for the design. Mowat pushed for the look to be achieved with practical makeup and prosthetics. "I was thinking Marlon Brando in The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996). Something eccentric and over the top. He [Villeneuve] really responded to it." After the initial concept and design discussions with Villeneuve, Mowat knew exactly who to bring on to collaborate with on The Baron. "I went to my old friends, Love Larson and Eva Von Bahr, because we met on a film with Stellan Skarsgård in Sweden some years ago." When discussing the Baron's size, Mowat and Larson felt at first that less might be more. But the filmmakers kept coming back to them, asking for the character to be bigger. They eventually realized they would need to make some kind of a fat suit. The next question became, 'Is this going to be a costume fat suit or a makeup fat suit?' Mowat said, "Our costume designers, Jacqueline West and Bob Morgan, felt he [Baron Harkonnen] would probably have his clothes off. So we knew this was going to be more in the makeup department's wheelhouse. I thought, let's look at having Love and his shop sculpt and build the suit in Sweden. Then we can monitor and give a progress report each week while we're prepping and shooting the film." Mowat gave Love Larson, Eva Von Bahr and their team 16 weeks to prep. "It was an enormous undertaking- the sculpting, detailing, and one makeup test." On shooting days, five people applied the prosthetics and suit. Application time was about 4 hours when Stellan Skarsgard was wearing clothes and 6 hours when the character was naked. "There are seven silicone pieces for the face in addition to the bald cap and brow covers. Everything is integrated and their work is sensational," Mowat explained. Stellan Skarsgard loved every part of the process, and Mowat spoke highly of his enthusiasm "Stellan's really into makeup. He's been in lots of incredible films with great makeup artists, hair stylists, and designers. He's got a great eye, and he is very enthusiastic. He's the kind of guy that when I set up the life casting for one day, I said, 'You know it's going to be 7 or 8 hours.' Stellan wouldn't want to break for lunch. We know other people who every 20 minutes need to be on the phone or have personal time. He's very committed and extremely enthusiastic." Some more complicated scenes involved Skarsgard being submerged in a bathtub of black muddy liquid which was meant to be a 'healing mud bath', according to Villeneuve. Mowat discovered that the oiliness of the mud bath substance on set was releasing the prosthetics. "It became a little bit more complicated with the suits' buoyancy as well. Larson and Bahr's team spent a whole Saturday and Sunday reconfiguring things to keep him under the oil. And that's the only time we used the stunt double instead of Stellan for safety, because he does get pulled."
- #088
(at around 23 mins) At around 23 minutes, Paul Atreides and Dr. Yueh (Timothée Chalamet and Chang Chen) have a hushed conversation in a mysterious language before Paul's meeting with the Reverend Mother Mohiam. The language is actually Mandarin Chinese. Very few old Earth languages are mentioned or hinted at in Frank Herbert's Dune novels, and Chinese is not one of them, aside from the Yueh name. It was director Denis Villeneuve's idea to have Chalamet speak Mandarin (with coaching from Chen, a native of Taiwan) to illustrate Paul's broad multilingualism. Chen later noted Chalamet's "perfect pronunciation" in doing the scene.
- #089
The Sardaukar army's chants feature a peculiar vocal technique called "throat singing" or "overtone singing". Its use is attested in traditions from all over the world (with the best known examples coming from Mongolian, Tibetan and Northern European traditions). In the Mediterranean area, one of the best known singing styles to employ it is "cantu a tenore", unique to the Barbagia region of Sardinia.
- #090
Cinematographer Greig Fraser revealed that though the film was originally shot digitally on the ARRI Alexa LF, director Denis Villeneuve transferred the picture onto 35mm film and then scanned the film back to digital.
- #091
The film's clothing is based on Dune (1984): the Harkonnen soldiers wear bulky green armor, the Atreides workers wear green uniforms with high collars and kepi caps, and the Sardaukar wear full pressure suits (while in the book they wore regular military uniforms and helmets).
- #092
More than two thousand visual effect shots were created for the film. These shots used a chroma key process that visual effects supervisor Paul Lambert called "sandscreen"; instead of using green-based backgrounds, the visual effects team used brown-colored ones that matched the establishing desert shots intended for backgrounds. The resulting shots appear more natural than with other chroma keys. The sandworms were created through computer-generated imagery, with an original design considered "prehistoric" by Lambert, inspired by whales with a mouth filled with baleen and following the underwater movements of whales. While they had considered using rigged explosives to capture the motion of the sandworms breaking the surface in the desert, this would have been impractical in the Middle East, and instead used Houdini software to have sand mimic the motion of water. Villeneuve did not want the sound associated with these special effects to sound as a studio production, and sound designers Mark A. Mangini and Theo Green used a "fake documentary realism" approach to capture natural sounds and manipulate them for use in the film, such as recording the sounds of shifting sands in Death Valley using hydrophones.
- #093
Cinematographer Greig Fraser revealed that though the film was originally shot digitally on the ARRI Alexa LF, director Denis Villeneuve transferred the picture onto 35mm film and then scanned the film back to digital.
- #094
When Baron Harkonnen says, "The Emperor is a jealous man; a dangerous, jealous man," he pours water on his bald head. This is a direct homage to a shot in Apocalypse Now (1979), in which Marlon Brando does the same.
- #095
The makeup department for the film needed a strong designer. Enter Canadian makeup artist and department head Donald Mowat. Mowat's career spans more than three decades and he is best known for working on films such as The Fighter (2010), 8 Mile (2002), Sicario (2015), Nightcrawler (2014), Prisoners (2013), Nocturnal Animals (2016), and Blade Runner 2049 (2017). Mowat and Denis Villeneuve first worked together on Prisoners in 2013, followed by Sicario and Blade Runner 2049. As he tells SWSCA, "This is my fourth film with [Denis]. I think we have a really remarkable professional relationship. He wanted me to take this job running makeup, prosthetics, and hair as well. There's something fluid and easy if you have a person who deals with the makeup looks and the hair designs, like a costume designer or production designer. Denis was happy to try this. So I was active as a makeup artist and as a hair designer."
- #096
This is the first Dune adaptation to be filmed in IMAX (with IMAX-certified ARRI Alexa LF & Mini LF cameras), unlike previous adaptations, which were filmed in Todd-AO 35 for Dune (1984) and Univisium 2:1 for Dune (2000).
Characters & Cast (8)
- #097
Kyle MacLachlan, who played Paul in Dune (1984), was very supportive of Timothée Chalamet's casting as Paul Atreides. He also said that he would love to have a cameo in a sequel.
- #098
The character of Liet Kynes, portrayed by Sharon Duncan-Brewster, has been gender-swapped from the books. He was previously portrayed by Max von Sydow in Dune (1984) and by Karel Dobrý (as Dr. Pardot Kynes/Liet) in the mini-series Dune (2000).
- #099
Composer Hans Zimmer is a big fan of the novel Dune, and turned down working with frequent collaborator Sir Christopher Nolan on Tenet (2020) to score this film. For the same reason, although Denis Villeneuve was the top choice to direct the Bond film No Time to Die (2021), he turned down the offer.
- #100
Denis Villeneuve wanted Stellan Skarsgård to play Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, because even though he describes Skarsgård as a very nice man, he also admitted to being somewhat scared by the actor. Villeneuve saw the Baron as a "rhino in human form", but didn't want to resort to CGI, so Skarsgård had to spend seven hours a day applying makeup for his role as the Baron.
- #101
According to Denis Villeneuve, most (but not all) of the main cast who featured were his top choices. Zendaya was ultimately cast as Chani from the auditions, after she was judged to have the best character chemistry with Timothée Chalamet. Chang Chen got the role of Dr. Yueh by chance after an encounter with Villeneuve at the 2018 Cannes film festival. Josh Brolin eventually got the part of Gurney after being suggested to meet Villeneuve by Legendary Pictures CEO Thomas Tull while pitching a project of his own to the company. According to fight coordinator Roger Yuan, Brolin's daughter had just been born when he arrived at Yuan's place to train for his fight scenes in the movie, and almost dropped out of the film: "He was this close to sending an email to Denis to saying, 'I can't do this film, I can't do it, I can't do it!' [laughs]." Fortunately, Brolin persevered, and Yuan praised him for his perfectionism.
- #102
Dave Bautista plays the Baron's nephew Glossu Rabban Harkonnen, also known as 'the Beast.' For the Beast, Mowat opted for old-fashioned theatrical painted makeup. The only prosthetics applied were the eyebrow covers by Roland Blancaflor at RBFX Studio. Mowat explained: "It was a classic makeup. I had to tattoo his hands and neck and then do a simple makeup. I used three or four colors of very traditional greasepaint. He (Bautista) came to the production very late and I did a test and Denis Villeneuve loved it. Dave really became one of our favorites. He only shot for six or seven days, but I loved having Dave; it was my second or third time working with him." Ultimately, Mowat went far beyond simply making the Harkonnen characters pale. He approached the makeup concept as creating different species. "You have to be a storyteller. Sometimes you're like the old days; you have a few paint pencils, a makeup box and a few pansticks, so you have to learn how to use them. You don't always have the privilege of being on something with money and Photoshop and a lot of resources. And I really love working that way."
- #103
Another iconic character is the sadistic Mentat Piter de Vries, who serves the Baron. Donald Mowat had previously worked with David Dastmalchian and considered him an old friend. During early discussions, Dastmalchian was ready to shave his head for the role, but a last-minute consideration created some uncertainty. "One day he called me and said: 'Don, I've been given a task. And I don't know what to do. I can't cut my hair. I have to do this.' He trusted me and I said we needed to talk to Denis." They discussed the situation with Denis Villeneuve and decided the look could be achieved with a bald cap. Mowat then called Stephen Prouty at Fusion FX in Los Angeles. "I sent [David] twice and he made a custom silicone cap for us. Steve also very kindly did a test for us in Los Angeles months before David came to Budapest to work." When we got to the film set, Rocky Faulkner applied the cap.
- #104
Contains a major spoiler — show
French-Icelandic actor Tómas Lemarquis appears prominently in concept art as a Harkonnen soldier. Lemarquis has a condition known as alopecia universalis, which renders him completely hairless, a feature of all inhabitants of Giedi Prime in this adaptation. Dora Kápolnai-Schvab and Joelle, who play the Baron's servants, have the same condition. Lemarquis appeared in Denis Villeneuve's previous film Blade Runner 2049 (2017) but not in this one. Because of this, some fans had theorized that Lemarquis would play the character of Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in an eventual sequel. However, this was proven false when the sequel was greenlit, and Austin Butler was cast in the role.
Easter Eggs & References (21)
- #105
A very close version of the main theme from Dune (1984) appears in this 2021 adaptation at 2:07:20, after a Jamis vision, when Paul and Jessica see the desert with their still-suits put on for the first time.
- #106
Stephen Collins, who plays the Harkonnen soldier who suggests throwing Paul out of the ornithopter, is deaf. This is a nod to the novel, where it's explained that the Harkonnens specifically chose a deaf guard to oversee Paul and Jessica's capture so that he wouldn't be affected by their use of the Voice.
- #107
Many pieces of Atreides furniture portray a bull. Leto's father, Paulus, fought bulls to impress his people, as his namesake grandson Paul points out, which is portrayed in the novel 'Dune: House Atreides'. Paulus was also assassinated when his wife Helena arranged for the bull to be drugged. The lettering on Paulus's grave is Greek, since House Atreides is itself of Greek ancestry: in the 'Prelude to Dune' trilogy, it is stated that House Atreides traced its ancestry back to the ancient House of Atreus, including King Agamemnon. Paul's middle name, Orestes, also pays homage to this. In the 'Legends of Dune' trilogy, it is revealed that a meek warlord took the name Agamemnon and gave his only son, Vorian, the surname Atreides (which means 'sons of Atreus').
- #108
In Dune (1984), all the Harkonnen were depicted as red-haired. In this movie they are all depicted as bald.
- #109
During Paul's vision of Jessica, her tattoo is the Litany Against Fear in the Fremen language.
- #110
Josh Brolin and Dave Bautista previously starred together in Avengers: Endgame (2019). Also appearing in that film was William Hurt, who played Leto in Dune (2000).
- #111
The first full trailer for the film features a version of Pink Floyd's "Eclipse" by composer Hans Zimmer. This is a nod to director Alejandro Jodorowsky's proposed adaptation of Dune in the 1970s, for which he wanted the band to write the score. Jodorowsky wasn't impressed by the homage, and called the footage from the trailer "predictable".
- #112
During the meeting with representatives of the high houses, the same pattern can be seen on Lady Jessica's dress, the Reverend Mother's dress, and on the seal wax used by the Bene Gesserit.
- #113
The film's editor provides the voice of Paul's filmbooks about Arrakis.
- #114
The small book that Gurney Halleck occasionally browses (first seen at around 34 mins) almost certainly represents the "Orange Catholic Bible", the main religious text of the Imperium. It is a fusion of the great ancient beliefs of Earth, with what seemed an emphasis on Islamic roots.
- #115
The aircraft Duncan Idaho pilots into the hangar on Caladan (at about 10 minutes) is quite asymmetrical in shape, its right side extending much farther out than its left, like a very lopsided boomerang.
- #116
(at around 49 mins) At around 49 minutes, Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin) responds to the report of the Harkonnens' huge profits with a quote: "And I shall suck at the abundance of the seas, and the treasure hid in the sand." This is from Deuteronomy, more or less. In his third Dune novel, Frank Herbert employs a scrambled, but recognizable, version of the verse. Aboard the Mayflower, Brewster probably would have known another of the Pilgrims, John Alden - an 11th great-grandfather of Brolin.
- #117
When Baron Harkonnen says, "The Emperor is a jealous man; a dangerous, jealous man," he pours water on his bald head. This is a direct homage to a shot in Apocalypse Now (1979), in which Marlon Brando does the same.
- #118
Denis Villeneuve's previous film, Blade Runner 2049 (2017), also featured a return cameo by Sean Young, who played Chani in David Lynch's Dune (1984).
- #119
Oscar Isaac's character (Duke Leto) tells his son and heir, Paul, that he told his own father that he did not want the Atreides ring and its attendant responsibilities. "I wanted to be a pilot." Isaac played pilot Poe Dameron in the final Star Wars trilogy.
- #120
Another connection with the failed Alejandro Jodorowsky version is the appearance of Charlotte Rampling. Jodorowsky wanted her to play Lady Jessica Atreides, but she didn't like his screenplay, objecting primarily to one proposed sequence involving thousands of extras simultaneously relieving their bowels. She appears in this version as the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam.
- #121
On Letterboxd, the eye icon used to signify that a user has watched a title is usually green. For this film's entry, the eye is blue, representing the Fremen.
- #122
Stephen Collins, who plays the Harkonnen soldier who suggests throwing Paul out of the ornithopter, is deaf. This is a nod to the novel, where it's explained that the Harkonnens specifically chose a deaf soldier to oversee Paul and Jessica's capture so that he wouldn't be affected by Paul and Jessica's use of the Voice.
- #123
Announced as Dune, all the posters, trailers and stills titled it "Dune". The truth that it really was a preconceived first part wasn't revealed until the movie release, when the audience could see in the movie the title "Dune Part One".
- #124
Kyle MacLachlan, who played Paul in Dune (1984), was very supportive of Timothée Chalamet's casting as Paul Atreides. He also said that he would love to have a cameo in a sequel.
- #125
Many pieces of Atreides furniture portray a bull. Leto's father, Paulus, fought bulls to impress his people as his namesake grandson Paul points out, which is portrayed in the novel 'Dune: House Atreides'. Paulus was also assassinated when his wife Helena arranged for the bull to be drugged. The lettering on Paulus's grave is Greek, since House Atreides is itself of Greek ancestry: in the 'Prelude to Dune' trilogy, it is stated that House Atreides traced its ancestry back to the ancient House of Atreus, including King Agamemnon. Paul's middle name, Orestes, also pays homage to this. In the 'Legends of Dune' trilogy, it is revealed that a meek warlord took the name Agamemnon, and gave his only son, Vorian, the surname Atreides (which means 'sons of Atreus').
Deeper Meaning (12)
- #126
Much speculation exists about the origin of the name Bene Gesserit. In Latin it means "well-behaved", but according to Frank Herbert's son, Brian Herbert, Gesserit is a twist on the Catholic religious order Jesuit.
- #127
This film sports a distinctly Arabic theme, in keeping with author Frank Herbert having used Islamic culture as an influence for his story. However, "Kwisatz Haderach" is a Hebrew term from kabbalah, and means "shortening of the way." It is said that the rabbis of old could use it to travel great distances in minuscule amounts of time.
- #128
Although bagpipes are of uncertain origin, there are depictions of ancient bagpipe-like instruments from Egypt, the Middle East and Rome and documented evidence of its use in medieval Europe (England, Ireland, Scotland, Brittany, France, Spain, Portugal and Italy). They have been adopted by military forces in the Middle East for over a century - the Jordanian army having a particularly spectacular marching pipe band. And so, with the Arabic and Islamic influences of Dune, it is wholly appropriate that bagpipes should be used by the Atreides military for ceremonial purposes.
- #129
Very little is seen of the Guild Navigators, the evolved beings that control space travel utilizing the Spice that drives much of the story. The film does not show what happens in the jump from star to star or planet to planet, the only hint being the long tunnel-like crafts that smaller ships emerge from above planets. In the scene where Reverend Mother Mohiam arrives on Caladan to test Paul, the planet she travels from can be seen through the tunnel, suggesting that the journey is somehow taking place instantaneously. In Dune lore, it is indeed explained that the Guild can "fold space", meaning that the point of departure and destination are being brought very close together through quantum mechanics, so that ships can make the trip without moving at all. The complex calculations necessary for these trips can only be done by Spice-enhanced Navigators of the Guild, explaining why Spice is so vital for interstellar travel and trade, and why the Guild has the monopoly on this means of transportation.
- #130
The matador imagery is reinforced by the Bull Fighting (Matador) Sculpture (created by Luke Massassi) found in the Atreides' home on Caladan, homeworld of House Atreides, and which appears twice in the movie. The sculpture represents the constant battle between House Harkonnen and House Atreides over the planet Arrakis and its spice: the Bull is House Harkonnen, the matador is House Atreides, and the cape represents the planet Arrakis, known as Dune.
- #131
Although not mentioned in the movie, the Great Houses originally come from Earth, explaining the use of Latin terms (such as 'Bene Gesserit', meaning 'well done', and the name Gaius), the Dutch word 'Landsraad', and the Dutch name 'De Vries'. Although they live on planet Caladan, the Atreides family has their roots in Earth's Greece, where the Minoan civilization was strongly associated with the bull-creature Minotaurus. This may explain the Atreides' use of bull imagery and the implication that Paul's grandfather died in a bullfight. In the extended universe, an ancient Atreides ancestor had traced his lineage back to the Greek King Atreus, a character mentioned in the Greek Iliad. He adopted the surname 'Atreides', which literally means 'son of Atreus'.
- #132
Adapting Dune for the big screen has been a lifelong dream of Denis Villeneuve, ever since he learned about David Lynch's cult classic Dune (1984) from the magazines Fantastic Films and Starlog, and read Frank Herbert's novel when he was around twelve years old. He wanted to make a faithful adaptation, so he waited until he'd done the science-fiction films Arrival (2016) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017) first so that he would have sufficient experience in the genre before starting work on this film. In fact, scenes from his prior films are strongly influenced by his interpretations of scenes from the novel.
- #133
This film sports a distinctly Arabic theme, in keeping with author Frank Herbert having used Islamic culture as an influence for his story. However, "Kwisatz Haderach" is a Hebrew term from kabbalah, and means "shortening of the way." It is said that the rabbis of old could use it to travel great distances in minuscule amounts of time.
- #134
The small book that Gurney Halleck occasionally browses (first seen at around 34 mins) almost certainly represents the "Orange Catholic Bible", the main religious text of the Imperium. It is a fusion of the great ancient beliefs of Earth, with what seemed an emphasis on Islamic roots.
- #135
The character of Stilgar, played by Javier Bardem, exhibits very fine and organic scarring along his cheekbones to signify a history of violence. It's an elegant concept that Donald Mowat enjoyed creating with Bardem. "It's a new makeup for him. He's never really had that, and I had a great time working with him. It was a fantastic experience. He's a superb actor and a genuinely nice person."
- #136
The matador imagery is reinforced by the Bull Fighting (Matador) Sculpture (created by Luke Massassi) found in the Atreides' home on Caladan, homeworld of House Atreides, and which appears twice in the movie. The sculpture represents the constant battle between House Harkonnen and House Atreides over the planet Arrakis and its spice: the Bull is House Harkonnen, the matador is House Atreides, and the cape represents the planet Arrakis, known as Dune.
- #137
Contains a major spoiler — show
The 'Mentats', including the Atreides' Thufir Hawat (Stephen McKinley Henderson) and the Harkonnen's Piter De Vries (David Dastmalchian), are basically 'human supercomputers', recognizable by the black mark on their lower lip. In author Frank Herbert's Dune universe, all advanced technology was banned over 10,000 years prior to the film, after tyrannical "thinking machines" (complex computers and artificial intelligence) had dominated and enslaved mankind for almost 900 years, until humanity defeated them over the course of a century in an event called the 'Butlerian Jihad'. Afterward, such machines were outlawed in the Imperium by a special commandment ("Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind."), and only simple logic circuits, sensors, robotics, and data storage-and-display devices based on new principles were allowed. This explains the abundance of low technology in the film, like "conventional" searchlights for defense, as well as old-fashioned analog displays; all complex tasks are done by mentats, and only Spice-enhanced Navigators of the Spacing Guild possess the complex knowledge to enable space travel. Other examples include the seemingly improbable failure of an advanced beam weapon (or "lasgun") to hit Duncan Idaho's ornithopter or Paul's inability to fly his ornithopter through a storm (at ~1h 26 mins); these are due to a lack of advanced targeting and navigation systems. The first scene could also be a reference to the fact that hitting an energy shield with a laser can cause a spontaneous subatomic reaction that often destroys both the target and the lasgun (and by extension, its user). Lasguns are, therefore, better suited for blasting up debris into low-flying aircraft.
Career & Awards (4)
- #138
James Cameron criticized the Academy Awards for not nominating Denis Villeneuve for Best Director for either of the Dune films: "Denis Villeneuve made these two magnificent Dune films and apparently these films make themselves because he wasn't considered as a director, not even by the Director's Guild. Like okay, you can play the awards game or you can play the game I like to play and that's to make movies people actually go to. Sorry!"
- #139
Both composer Hans Zimmer and director Denis Villeneuve grew up with a deep appreciation of the novel of Dune. When Villeneuve was leaving the country to go film the movie overseas, Zimmer said to Villeneuve "Don't f*** it up." When Villeneuve returned to hand the movie over to Zimmer to score, he returned the same sentiment, "Don't f*** it up." Dune eventually earned 10 Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture, and brought home six awards, including Best Music for Zimmer.
- #140
Sir Roger Deakins was initially set to be the director of photography, having worked so successfully with Denis Villeneuve on his previous movie Blade Runner 2049 (2017). Scheduling difficulties meant that Deakins was unavailable, so Greig Fraser took up the reins. Both Deakins and Fraser won the Oscar for Best Cinematography for their work on these consecutive Villeneuve projects.
- #141
James Cameron criticized the Academy Awards for not nominating Denis Villeneuve for Best Director for either of the Dune films, "Denis Villeneuve made these two magnificent Dune films and apparently these films make themselves because he wasn't considered as a director, not even by the Director's Guild. Like okay, you can play the awards game or you can play the game I like to play and that's to make movies people actually go to. Sorry!"
Related pages
- Sting — Dune: Part One comes up in the facts on that page
- Everything Everywhere All at Once — Dune: Part One comes up in the facts on that page
- Léa Seydoux — Dune: Part One comes up in the facts on that page
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- IMDb
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work