What Went into Creating These ‘Challenging’ DUNE Scenes?
By Movieguide® Contributor
The creative team behind DUNE: PART TWO recently revealed the work that went into filming the movie’s distinctive black-and-white scenes.
“One thing I loved about the book is [that] Frank Herbert explored the idea that humans are sculpted by their environment, by their ecosystem,” director Denis Villeneuve told The Hollywood Reporter.
When it came time to shoot the scenes on Giedi Prime, where the residents of House Harkonnen live, Villeneuve thought about what sort of environment would produce people like the Harkonnens.
“What if their sun, instead of revealing the colors, was killing the colors?” he asked, ultimately settling on filming those scenes not just in black-and-white but with an infrared lens.
Grieg Fraser, the movie’s cinematographer, added, “I think it was a combination of his idea of this light that doesn’t produce color and what I’d been looking at, which is infrared, which doesn’t even see light. I think when you see that, you start to understand why the Harkonnen look the way they do.”
“For me, the trickiest part was making sure I didn’t overlight it,” Fraser continued. “It’s a very fine balance when you’re shooting black [and white].”
DUNE: PART TWO’s editor, Joe Walker, called those scenes “a really challenging piece of filmmaking” that ultimately paid off, as you can see when you watch the movie.
READ MORE: DUNE: PART TWO REVIEW
Villeneuve’s direction led to DUNE: PART TWO being one of the Top 10 highest grossing movies of 2024, but many have called out the Academy for snubbing him at this year’s Oscars.
Josh Brolin, who starred in the movie, took to Instagram to share the situation, saying, “Apparently, I am going to quit acting because Denis Villeneuve didn’t get nominated,” referring to a previous statement he made about what he would do if Villeneuve didn’t get nominated for Best Director.
“This is just how this thing works. It makes no sense to me,” the actor continued. “That’s okay. [Editor] Joe Walker and Denis, you deserve it. It’s an amazing film. It was even better than the first one. The people who have gotten accolades surely deserve it. Happy to be a part of it. Congrats everyone.”
Villeneuve has another chance to score an Oscar nomination for his work on the franchise with DUNE 3, which he recently began working on.
The director told Deadline he is “in the writing zone right now,” and will end up “back behind the camera faster than I think.”
He gave a tentative production start date of 2026, but added, “These movies take a lot of time to be made, so it’s best not to say out loud when I might shoot.”
READ MORE: DUNE 3 IS ON THE HORIZON
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