Villeneuves

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Dune: Part One and Dune: Part Two. If you have not yet seen either film, proceed at your own risk!Adapting Frank Herbert’s Dune has long been a dream of writer/director Denis Villeneuve’s, and faithfulness has always been an important part of the equation. Case in point: the filmmaker knew that the entire book couldn’t fit into a single feature, and he made a gamble bringing the work to the big screen in two parts (with no guarantees that the second part was…

Most reviews of Denis Villeneuve's Dune: Part Two so far have been generous, to say the least. But as a fan of the books, I must take the road less travelled and state the difficulty in admitting the same. With over six books, Frank Herbert's Dune is a dense universe — far more cerebral than any movie can contain (David Lynch sure tried his luck in 1984). Perhaps it would have been better if the text was adapted as a series extending over a period of time, for a sudden plunge into the water-pumping and tear-tasting…

The second part of director Denis Villeneuve’s vast adaptation of sci-fi set-text Dune is out this week. But what would author Frank Herbert have made of it? We explore which elements the films get spot on about Dune – and where they may have got a bit lost in the desert.Right – The AtreidesIn Dune, House Atreides are a colonial power. They may be more righteous than many of the Galactic Imperium’s other noble houses – notably their sworn enemies, House Harkonnen – but they’re still out for self-advancement, hoping to…

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse LoughreyGet our The Life Cinematic email for freeThe deserts of the planet Arrakis are a hostile place for outsiders. There’s the heat. The wind. The perishing thirst. Take just a few errant steps, and you’ll find yourself falling into the maw of a giant sandworm.The story of Dune can be just as unforgiving an environment for those unfamiliar with the terrain.  In adapting Frank Herbert’s seminal sci-fi novel, Denis Villeneuve’s two…

Even the most die-hard of cinephiles will tell you that truly great films are few and far between, but it seems directors are also feeling the pang of mediocre movies these days. Between Madame Web, the 1,100th installment of The Fast and the Furious, and whatever it was that Jennifer Lopez was going for with This Is Me… Now, the state of film might seem pretty dire, and Dune director Denis Villeneuve would tend to agree. In a recent interview with The Times of London, Villeneuve said that “movies have been corrupted by…

Dune: Part 2 is upon us, but is still yet to hit theaters until March. The long-awaited sequel faced delays due to the Hollywood strikes, and the hype is real for the sci-fi follow-up film. Despite the movie not being released yet, yammerings about a possible Dune 3 continue to happen. Director Denis Villenueve has long expressed a desire to make a third film within the Dune universe, as the source material has six books within the series from original author Frank Herbert. This has hyped up fans and gotten many excited…

Denis Villeneuve's highly anticipated Dune: Part Two has landed, and its arrival has been met with a chorus of thrilling first reactions. With this, the demand for Dune: Part Three has skyrocketed. When critics are saying the movie is awesome, with amazing visuals, epic storytelling, and great direction by Villeneuve, you can bet it's going to stay popular for a while. Some are even saying it's a big deal in sci-fi. Let's see what all the fuss is about. Dune 2 first reactions: Villeneuve's futuristic vision…

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse LoughreyGet our The Life Cinematic email for freeThe first reactions to Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two are rolling in, with critics hailing the long-awaited sci-fi sequel as a “riveting, action-packed epic”.That was the verdict of Inverse editor Hoai-Tran Bui, who wrote on social media: “Dune: Part Two is a triumph. Even more immense than the first, but much more intimate — Denis Villeneuve manages to streamline the more…

Dune: Part Two is a little over a month away, and fans are still hoping there’s more films to come. Director Denis Villeneuve’s been quite about his desires to adapt the book’s immediate sequel, Dune Messiah. And while those plans haven’t changed, it sounds like he’ll step back from the series before giving that one a proper go. Spoilers of the Week April 24-29In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Villeneuve talked about wanting to “settle down a little bit” after Part Two. The first two Dune films were made…