Steven Spielberg is completely Dune pilled
Steven Spielberg says Dune: Part Two is "one of the most brilliant science fiction films I have ever seen"
Who here is a Dunehead? Statistically there have to be a few of you, since Dune: Part Two is outperforming the first film and tracking for a $650 million global box office haul (via Deadline). Among those Dune devotees is the blockbuster king himself, Mr. Steven Spielberg, who told director Denis Villeneuve that he is, basically, a total stan. “You have made one of the most brilliant science fiction films I have ever seen,” Spielberg tells Villeneuve on The Director’s Cut—A DGA Podcast.
Spielberg proclaims it “an honor” to sit in conversation with Villeneuve, whom he compares to “filmmakers who are the builders of worlds” (per Deadline). For Spielberg that vaunted list includes Georges Méliès, Walt Disney, Stanley Kubrick, George Lucas, Ray Harryhausen, Federico Fellini, Tim Burton, Wes Anderson, Peter Jackson, James Cameron, Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott, and Guillermo del Toro. “The list goes on but it’s not that long of a list,” Speilberg claims, “and I deeply, fervently believe that you are one of its newest members.”
Here’s some of the Jurassic Park director’s takes on Dune: Part Two:
“This is truly a visual epic, and it’s also filled with deeply, deeply drawn characters. Yet the dialogue is very sparse when you look at it proportionately to the running time of the film. It’s such cinema. The shots are so painterly, yet there’s not an angle or single setup that’s pretentious.”
“This is a desert-loving story, but for such a desert-loving film there is such a yearning for water in this movie. For all the sand you have in this film, it’s really about water. The sacred waters that are yearning for green meadows and the blue water of life. You film the desert to resemble an ocean, a sea. The sandworms were like sea serpents. And that scene surfing the sandworms is one of the greatest things I have ever seen. Ever! But you made the desert look like a liquid.”
“Those machines were incredible. I thought the machines were incredible in the first Dune, and I don’t know what you did, but you did something to detail them more this time with the sand falling off the treads, that was awesome … Warner Bros. paid for more pixels, is that right? Because of the success of the first film, it’s good to have more pixels in our business.”
Move over, Club Chalamet! Club Villeneuve is in the building!