Greig Fraser Offers New Details on Denis Villeneuve’s Dune

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Greig Fraser offers new details on Denis Villeneuve’s Dune

There’s still many a moons left until the highly-anticipated second stab at adapting Frank Herbert’s Dune for the big screen is set to hit theaters and while there’s still a lot of mystery surrounding Denis Villeneuve’s effort, director of photography Greig Fraser has opened up with some new details for the sci-fi epic.

In an interview with Collider, Fraser kept his lips tight on specific details for the project, but did discuss how different it was jumping from the world of Disney+’s The Mandalorian, on which he worked three episodes, and how it was “quite fun” having to forget much of the Star Wars thematics he picked up on the series.

“Denis and I spoke clearly about how the film should look and should feel, and the formats and this and that, so it was not hard to swerve and change lanes,” Fraser said. “There were some similarities like the desert. I mean listen, ultimately I’m positive George Lucas was inspired by Dune when he made Star Wars. I don’t know if that’s sacrilegious to talk about, but there are a lot of similarities in some areas, so you could tell he was definitely influenced by that. So I had to be careful doing both [Dune and The Mandalorian] and not to repeat myself. Also not just for the sake of the movie, but for fun. I hate to do the same thing twice.”

While Villeneuve’s plan to split Herbert’s novel into two films has had some wondering whether the first film will feel like its own project or if it will end on too much of a cliffhanger note, but Fraser assures that fans won’t be disappointed and that the first film is a “fully formed story in itself with places to go.”

“It’s a fully standalone epic film that people will get a lot out of when they see it,” Fraser said. “It was quite an adventure visually. It was a beautiful experience making it. The people involved with it, I was overwhelmed. Some of the actors, as well as being insanely talented actors, are just lovely, lovely people who I’ve become very close to since then.”

Buy the book that started it all here.

The star-studded cast includes Timothée Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name), Rebecca Ferguson (Mission: Impossible — Fallout) and Oscar Isaac (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) in leading roles. The film will also feature Zendaya (Spider-Man: Far From Home) Jason Momoa (Aquaman), Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy), Javier Bardem (No Country For Old Men), Stellan Skarsgard (Thor: The Dark World), Charlotte Rampling (The Night Porter) and Josh Brolin (Avengers: Endgame).

Villeneuve is best known for directing Blade Runner 2049 as well as Sicario. Though Dune will likely resemble the former film more than the latter, both display the sort of experience directing arid, desolate locales that a fan would want in their Dune director, considering a sizable chunk of the story takes place on a desert planet.

Dune is currently set to be released in theaters on December 18, 2020.