Denis Villeneuve is quickly approaching the release of Dune, and it seems as though it’s going to be a bit of a tight squeeze to get it done.
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Dune is a big-budget adaptation of Frank Herber’s historic 1965 sci-fi epic. While previously adapted theatrically by David Lynch, Villeneuve is going all out by splitting the first book into two films. When this plan was originally hatched, however, the world was not yet saddled with a global pandemic.
Speaking with IndieWire, Villeneuve discussed the plan second shooting schedule in light of coronavirus, saying, “We were about to finish some shooting… the movie was like almost finished.” Normally a film of this size would already be done, but the director explained, saying, “Dune has been made in an unusual way which is that we made the main shooting, and then I edited that part of the movie and I was planning to go back to shoot some elements later because I wanted to readjust the movie – I needed time, and it’s a luxury that I had [before the pandemic]… When the virus hit North America as we were about to go back to do those elements.”
Now, as studios, put plans in place to resume filming he may get to wrap up his film finally, but it’s going to be tough. “The impact was that it crushed my schedule right now.” He went to add, “It will be a sprint to finish the movie on time right now. We were allowed to go back to shoot – we’re going back to shoot those elements in a few weeks, [the ones] we were supposed to shoot earlier. It meant that I also had to finish some elements of the movie like VFX and the editing being in Montreal as my crew stayed in Los Angeles.”
With Dune set to launch not only films, but also TV projects, something tells us a delay will come up should it really be needed.
Currently, Dune is scheduled to hit theaters on Dec. 18.
