It’s a rare treat when two genre filmmaking giants like Steven Spielberg and Denis Villeneuve come together to share their insights. In a recent episode of The Director’s Cut—A DGA Podcast, these visionary filmmakers sat down for a conversation that was both entertaining and enlightening. Spielberg, in particular, didn’t hold back in his praise for Villeneuve, particularly commending his unique approach to filmmaking and his latest masterpiece, “Dune: Part Two,” and welcoming him into the upper echelon of directors.
Spielberg shared his impression of Villeneuve, saying he is among the “builders of worlds,” comparing him to some of the filmmaking greats.
“Let me start by saying there are filmmakers who are the builders of worlds. It’s not a long list, and we know who a lot of them are. Starting with [Georges] Méliès and [Walt] Disney and [Stanley] Kubrick, George Lucas. Ray Harryhausen, I include in that list. Fellini built his own worlds. Tim Burton. Wes Anderson, Peter Jackson, James Cameron, Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott, Guillermo del Toro. The list goes on but it’s not that long of a list, and I deeply, fervently believe that you are one of its newest members.”
It’s a group of visionary directors that anyone would kill to be mentioned alongside, so you can only imagine how Villeneuve must have felt hearing this from the maestro Spielberg.
During their conversation, Spielberg also shared with Villeneuve his exceptional experience watching “Dune: Part Two,” praising it as one of the best sci-fi films he’s ever experienced.
“You have made one of the most brilliant science-fiction films I’ve ever seen,” the veteran filmmaker said. It’s high praise indeed as the Oscar-winning filmmaker helped shape the modern sci-fi genre with classics like, “Close Encounters of The Third Kind,” “E.T: Extra-Terrestrial,” “Jurassic Park,” “Minority Report,” “War of The Worlds,” “Ready Player One,” and the former Kubrick project “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence.”
“This is a desert-loving story, but for such a desert-loving film, there is such a yearning for water in this movie,” Spielberg explained with one of his remarkable insights about the film. “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.”
Villeneuve has already experienced hearing one of his idols, Christopher Nolan, heap great praise on him, but to hear it from a master like Steven Spielberg, one has to imagine the French Canadian filmmaker was over the moon. You can listen to that whole conversation on that DGA-affiliated podcast below.