The only thing more impressive than watching Paul Atreides ride a sandworm in Dune: Part Two is watching director Denis Villeneuve explain how he made it happen. Villeneuve knew the scene was arguably the most memorable and crucial scene in the second half of his adaptation, and he put a mind-numbing amount of time and care into making it just right.
From the dialogue, to the camera angles, to trucks pulling sand with giant fans and more, making Paul ride the sandworm was a herculean task. And in a new video, Villeneuve breaks down every detail, with some very surprising revelations along the way. Thanks to Vanity Fair for the video.
Two of the things that blew my mind most in the video were, first of all, the idea that Paul misses his Uber. I’ve seen the film three times and it never occurred to me that Paul has to run after the sandworm because he’s inexperienced and screwed that up. I love that thought behind it. The idea too that to get the sand dune to fall just right, there were three trucks off-screen pulling huge cylinders away is one of those things you can’t learn from a book, you just have to figure it out while preparing to make a movie.
Those are just two of the many interesting revelations here. A few others are the idea that Villeneuve refused to use artificial light, so they could only work on the scene at a certain time of day, is a testament to his precision. And all his on-the-fly drawings and descriptions of the gimbals used are fascinating too.
Basically, listening to Villeneuve talk about how he made this scene, everything that went into it, and his pride from the result, is a perfect example of why Dune: Part Two is so good and why other films, which maybe aren’t made with as much care, aren’t.
Dune Part Two is now in theaters.
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