The list of reasons to be excited about the second part of Dune – Dune: Part Two, even – has gone up by one. Léa Seydoux, star of No Time to Die and about 97 films at this year’s Cannes – has just joined the cast.
And what a cast. Joining Dune veterans like Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin and Stellan Skarsgård, are Elvis star Austin Butler, Florence Pugh and the legendary character actor that is Christopher Walken. We can’t wait to find out how he pronounces ‘Atreides’.
Seydoux will be playing Lady Margot, part of the Bene Gesserit sisterhood alongside Ferguson’s Lady Jessica. She’ll bring more of that sect’s spiritual purity, politicking and devotion to the cause of its figurehead, the Reverend Mother. Lady Jessica, we know, will be hiding out with the Fremen on the sandworm-riddled planet of Arrakis.
‘It will be for Paul and Jessica to be accepted by the Fremen culture, to immerse themselves and become one with it, and that’s one of my favourite parts of the novel,’ director Denis Villeneuve told us back in October. ‘They learn the ways of the desert, and Paul has to learn to control this rising power within himself to foresee the future and to avenge his father. Dune is a tragedy and the second part is much more intense than the first part.’
The shoot gets underway in the autumn, with a worldwide release date scheduled for October 20, 2023.
‘Bringing a film crew into the desert was nightmarish.’ Denis Villeneuve talks Dune.
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