Denis Villeneuve Says ‘Dune’ Will Be “Star Wars For Adults”

During the press run for “Blade Runner 2049,” Denis Villeneuve was inevitably asked about whether or not he’d be interesting in taking on another beloved sci-fi franchise — “Star Wars.” And he had a pretty interesting answer.

“It’s something that, again it’s like, I would be intrigued,” Villeneuve said. “I don’t know, it’s very difficult. What is dangerous with ‘Star Wars‘ right now is its become its own vocabulary. I would love to see them — I think ‘Rogue One‘ was a very interesting attempt to get out of the mold.”

“I think it would be a great idea to get out of there and to go on a new part of the galaxy, that I would be open to,” the director added.

Whether or not he’s had a conversation with Kathleen Kennedy is unclear, but what we do now is that the director is still focused on making “Dune” his next film. Villeneuve is respectfully not a fan of David Lynch‘s adaptation of Frank Herbert‘s novel, and is eager to put his own mark on the source material he’s long wanted to tackle. So, what will his “Dune” look like? Well, it’ll kinda be similar to going to a galaxy far, far away.

“Most of the main ideas of ‘Star Wars’ are coming from ‘Dune’ so it’s going to be a challenge to [tackle] this,” Villeneuve told Fandom. “The ambition is to do the ‘Star Wars’ movie I never saw. In a way, it’s ‘Star Wars’ for adults. We’ll see.”

It’s a bold statement, but before anyone gets ahead of themselves, the filmmaker cautions it’s still very early days on “Dune.” Villeneuve aims to adapt the first book in the series, but don’t ask him about sequels or followups — which he says he might be involved in — because for all he knows, “Dune” could fall apart.

“If it happens. That’s the thing. Today you’re asking me this question about a project that doesn’t exist yet. I’m used to talking about projects when they’re shot, finished, I’m in the editing room, I’m about to release the movie. Then you talk about something real,” he said. “Right now, I might in three weeks or two months learn that nobody agrees on a screenplay, it will be with someone else. It can happen. And when the movie will be made? It’s all theory right now.”

Still, we loved what Villeneuve did with “Arrival,” and the possibility of going hard(er) sci-fi with “Dune” is pretty exciting.