La Dune by Denis Villeneuve accessible if you haven’t read the book

There is a very good reason why Dune, one of the most influential science fiction books of all time, has never had a great adaptation. Basically it’s fair a lot. The story takes place on several planets; follows several families, factions and belief systems; and it is less action than persuasion – diplomacy or cunning are preferred over brute force and violence. When filmmaker Denis Villeneuve sat down for adapt the Frank Herbert classic for the 21st century, he knew he had several challenges, but making it accessible to a wider audience — so the the film would bring in money– was the tallest of all.

“I am a big fan of Dune books. It’s a book that has stayed with me for 35 years and it’s a book that I know deeply, ”Villeneuve told io9 and a group of journalists last month. “So you get into the adaptation, you realize that the goal was to make a film that will appeal to die-hard fans, to people who know Dune by heart, and also my mother who has never read Dune … So finding that balance was not easy.

The way to this balance was to approach Dune from the point of view of the public. “I had to [figure out] how to present this world without being too didactic so that it becomes like a lesson, that it becomes almost like a duty for the public ”, declared Villeneuve. “So that’s where we had to find ways to feel respectful to the book, but a little different. Everything is therefore a matter of choice and sometimes of difficult decisions.

These difficult choices and decisions are many, from dividing the book into two parts with the hope and prayer that it do the rest in the near future, to focus his version of this story on two specific characters. “The way, first of all, the emphasis was [found] Did I tell my partner screenwriters that we need to focus on Paul, Paul, Paul, ”Villeneuve said. “As you know it, Dune has been written that you visit the different planets and all these families. But for the movie, I said we would mainly focus on Paul Attrides. I want the movie to be as immersive as possible and to be from the boy’s point of view.

Paul — played by Timothée Chalamet– has always been the main character but his arc is only part of the story. The first section of Herbert’s book spends a lot of time with his father, Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac); his loyal soldiers like Duncan Idaho and Gurney Halleck (Jason momoa, Josh Brolin); the evil Harkonnens (played by Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, and others); and much more. All of this as the Attrides family travel from the lush planet Caladan to the dry planet Arrakis, where there is an abundant source of the galaxy’s most precious resource, spices.

For much of the story, Paul takes this trip with his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), a member of the Well done. It’s a group of almost overpowered women who basically control the galaxy behind the scenes. So if you want to focus on Paul and his future, the other thing Villeneuve realized he had to do was focus on Jessica. “I said to [co-screenwriter] Eric Roth — who was on a mission to hunt down the beast in the beginning — Eric asked me, ‘What would be the most important thing? What would you like to focus on as I adjust? And I said to him, “Women,” said the director. “I think in Dune women are very important. I think they were very important to Frank Herbert. And I think the Bene Gesserit should be blunt. I wish Lady Jessica wasn’t the main protagonist, but only behind. So it was very important that the film focus on Paul and the relationship with his mother and this led to [building] up Lady Jessica as much as possible.

Focusing the main story on a boy and his mother instantly makes a movie about huge ideas from another world more accessible. Over the production, Villeneuve was able to refine his ideas more and more in order to have the right balance between digestible history and Dune uniqueness. “Again, [that balance] is not something that was done in five days, ”he said. “It… evolved as we wrote the movie. As I photograph and ride it is something that evolves like a sculpture will evolve. And for me, it was a very fascinating filmmaking process that I really enjoyed, having this space to explore to make sure I found the right path to tell this story. But it was not a path that I found very quickly.

Even after all of this, it doesn’t matter if non-fans think the story is accessible or if fans think it’s faithful enough to the original, it’s crucial to remember that this is only half of the story. the story. People who want more of Freman alive, Harkonnen shenanigans and sandworms, will hopefully still have that chance. “The beauty of making the film in two parts, it was a decision that I made from the beginning too, is that there are certain elements that I did not explore in this first part that I will have the chance to explore in a second part, ”said Villenuve.Dune [has] all its power in the details.

Dune: part one opens in theaters and on HBO Max, October 22.

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