Many questions abound with “Dune: Part Two” now in theaters. Will it be the theatrical smash hit Warner Bros. expects it to be? Will it be so successful that Denis Villeneuve and his “Dune” cast have no choice but to expedite development on “Dune Messiah” and shoot it as soon as possible? And if not, where does Villeneuve go from here creatively? Maybe he pivots to his long-developing “Cleopatra” project, or instead to new project entirely?
Whatever Villeneuve’s next movie ends up being, it won’t be in someone else’s cinematic universe. In a new interview with THR, the director opined he’ll never helm a project like “Blade Runner 2049” again, as rewarding an experience as making that film was for him. When asked if he could make the 2017 film without the influence of Ridley Scott‘s film looming over him, Villeneuve replied, “No, never. “Blade Runner” is one of my favorite films, and it’s absolutely a masterpiece. Ridley Scott is one of my favorite filmmakers, and even though he had given his blessing, it was very important for me to hear it and see it in his eyes that he was OK with me doing the movie at the time. But I was constantly thinking about the original film as I was making “Blade Runner 2049.” It was impossible not to.”
In that sense, Villeneuve feels that the movie never became fully his, and that’s a creative status he’d like to avoid in the future. “”2049″ was really a love letter to the first film, but it was by far one of the most difficult projects I’ve ever done, and I don’t think I will ever approach someone else’s universe again,” he continued. “I still wake up sometimes at night, saying, ‘Why did I do that?’ I’d declined a few other projects of that scale, but at the time, I said to myself, ‘It’s a crazy project, but it’s worth the risk of losing everything.'” Indeed, “Blade Runner 2049” cemented Villeneuve’s place in Hollywood and guaranteed a chance for him to achieve his life-long dream in adapting “Dune.” And Villeneuve is being modest: “Blade Runner 2049” is very much its own movie, and one of the most formally impressive films of the past ten years, despite being very much in dialogue with Scott’s predecessor.
Still, all this talk about “Blade Runner” doesn’t answer the topic du jour: what does Villeneuve plan to make next? Well, the filmmaker plans to rest first, but he has a number of options. “I have four projects on the table, currently,” Villeneuve explained. “One of them is a secret project that I cannot talk about right now, but that needs to see the light of day quite quickly. So it would be a good idea to do something in between projects, before tackling “Dune Messiah” and “Cleopatra.” All these projects are still being written, so we’ll see where they go, but I have no control over that.”
The secret project Villeneuve mentions sounds intriguing, especially his urge to complete it swiftly. The director did something similar with “Enemy,” an intimate thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal that he shot right before “Prisoners,” doing post-production on both films concurrently. So maybe Villeneuve will make a smaller film before he sets his sight on another blockbuster. That wouldn’t surprise Gyllenhaal. “One of the very first things Denis said to me when we met about “Enemy” was that he had to make that film before he could make any other,” the actor told THR. “He falls in love with a story and then he can do nothing else until he’s exorcised that vision.”
But sorry “Sicario” fans, Villeneuve won’t be helming “Sicario 3.” When asked about the upcoming sequel, the filmmaker laughed and said, “It’s funny because I only heard about this project through an interview, but if Taylor Sheridan is the screenwriter, I want to see that movie.” Villeneuve already shot down rumors he’d helm “Sicario 3” in an interview earlier this year, but he’s still excited about the film, which has original cast members Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro, and Josh Brolin in talks to return.
For now, however, the theatrical success of “Dune: Part Two” takes center stage for Villeneuve. All eyes are on the sequel and how well it does its opening weekend and beyond. And don’t be surprised if “Dune Messiah” gets greenlit quickly if “Dune: Part Two” rakes at the global box office; a new blockbuster is exactly what Warner Bros. needs right now.