There are many possible reasons why Blade Runner 2049 didn’t fly at the box office in the way that all involved might have hoped, and one of those could be that intimidating near-three hour runtime. But that doesn’t seem to have bothered its director Denis Villeneuve — the filmmaker has offered a tidbit about his next project, the long-awaited re-adaptation of Dune, and it looks to be another lengthy sci-fi epic.
At Montreal film festival Rendez-Vous du Cinéma Québécois, Villeneuve spoke briefly about taking on Frank Herbert’s sci-fi novel, saying: “Dune will probably take two years to make. The goal is to make two films, maybe more.”
Yes, we could likely be getting more than just the one Dune film from Villeneuve — though it’s unclear whether his version will adapt the first book only, or Herbert’s entire saga. The story is famously dense and difficult to adapt — David Lynch disowned his 1984 version starring Kyle MacLachlan and Sting, while the likes of Ridley Scott and Alejandro Jodorowsky (whose proposed take was chronicled in documentary Jodorowsky's Dune) failed in their attempts to bring it to the screen. Interestingly Scott, who Villeneuve worked with closely on Blade Runner 2049, also planned to split the novel in two for his adaptation.
It’s early days on the project for now, but it’s interesting to see that Villeneuve won’t be letting the lukewarm commercial reception to Blade Runner 2049 cool off his penchant for complex and lengthy adult sci-fi.
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