And then, there were 3,725. Or at least that's what it feels like as the casting news for Denis Villeneuve's new adaptation of Dune just keeps pouring in like sand through an hourglass. Now Jason Momoa, a man more normally seen in CG water these days, is joining the film.
Dune, which as you should surely know by now (we've written this up enough), aims to tackle Frank Herbert's sprawling far-future tale of warring families, a desert planet and the giant sandworms that stalk its landscapes. The story finds the Atreides family, led by Oscar Isaac's Duke Leto, winning control of precious planet Arrakis, home to an ultra-valuable spice that has mind-altering power and also aids in interstellar navigation. But when the Atreides are betrayed by the Emperor and attacked by the Harkonnen forces (ruled by Stellan Skarsgård's Baron, backed up by enforcer/nephew Glossu "Beast" Rabban, to be played by Dave Bautista), the son of the family, Paul (Timothée Chalamet) flees with his mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) into the harsh terrain.
There, Paul joins forces with the local Fremen (commanded by Javier Bardem's Stilgar) and meets Chani (Zendaya), a warrior woman he's already seen in prescient dreams. He'll become a religious leader among the native people, and rise to a position of real power.
If that cast wasn't loaded enough already, we also know that Charlotte Rampling and, most recently, Josh Brolin are aboard the film. Momoa, assuming he makes a deal, will be Duncan Idaho, a sword master in the house of Atreides and the right-hand man to Isaac's Leto.
Villeneuve is scheduled to start shooting this spring in Jordan and Budapest. We're now going to expect a 73-hour documentary on the casting process for Dune when it eventually arrives on home entertainment formats.
Keep up to date with all the latest movie news, click here to subscribe to Empire on Great Magazines and have the latest issue delivered to your door every month.