Denis Villeneuve Says Movies Have Been “Corrupted By Television” & He “Hates Dialogue”

Having grossed nearly $375 million at the worldwide box office ($362 million so far), Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two” appears to be a big success, even though it apparently needs to hit the $500 million mark to break even. Ah, movie math.

Florence Pugh has so many amazing films under her belt!

Josh Brolin is back on the big screen in “Dune: Part Two,” his latest movie role since first playing Gurney Halleck for Denis Villeneuve in the 2021 film. And to commemorate his return, the actor sat down with Yahoo to talk about the highs and lows of his film career, including what’s arguably its nadir: the disastrous 2010 superhero flick “Jonah Hex.” Reviled by critics upon release, the film made back only $11 million of its $47 million budget at the box office, with Brolin and castmate Megan Fox receiving Razzie nods for their performances.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “Dune: Part Two” features one of the starriest casts in recent memory. From Timothée Chalamet to Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista and more, there’s rarely a scene in the Denis Villeneuve-directed sequel that isn’t filled with star power. The cast was supposed to be even bigger, however, but the filmmaker had to make some cuts to the final edit that left at least one actor “heartbroken.” Tim Blake Nelson, a regular of the Coen Brothers thanks to films such as “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” and “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” was announced as a cast member for “Dune: Part Two” in January 2023.

If we’re going to praise the visual rapture of Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” movies—and we should—and in particular, the newly released “Dune: Part Two,” there’s no conversation that can happen without mention of Academy Award-winning cinematographer Greig Fraser, who won his first Oscar for “Dune” in 2022. READ MORE: Denis Villeneuve Calls ‘Dune: Part Two’ A “Dark Tragedy,” Talks Potential ‘Messiah’ Sequel & More [Interview] While “Dune: Part Two” is genuinely unanimously praised by critics (read our review here)—and this weekend, it grossed $178.5 million worldwide, and with $81 domestic, that’s the biggest opening since “Barbie”— it does have a small group of detractors.

Dune: Part Two director Denis Villeneuve has defended the film’s lengthy running time amid debates about whether or not films are getting too long.The sci-fi epic has clocked up a running time of 2 hours and 46 minutes, just slightly longer than the first instalment of the adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel, which was 2 hours and 35 minutes long.It’s been noted that films have gradually been getting longer in the last decade, sparking a debate about how necessary that is. It picked up pace in particular last year with the release of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Martin Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon, which were three hours and three and a half hours long respectively.Now, Villeneuve has had his say on the matter.

Tim Chan If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two” soared past expectations in its opening weekend, debuting to a massive $81.5 million at the box office. Studio Warner Bros.

*Some spoilers ahead for “Dune: Part Two” in the following article, beware.” When adapting a rich sci-fi fantasy literary franchise as dense and epic as the scale of Frank Herbert’s “Dune,” some things just won’t be able to make the feature film adaptation. As you may have noticed if you saw this film this weekend, there are a few elements seen in the David Lynch incarnation that didn’t make it into director Denis Villeneuve’s two-part incarnation, such as the Spicing Guild and Navigator (A mutated clairvoyant that warns The Emperor of House Atreties and Paul Atreteies becoming a threat to them).

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent For “Dune: Part Two,” Denis Villeneuve delved deep into the Arabian desert and spent almost a month shooting in Abu Dhabi’s Liwa Oasis, which provided a substantial portion of the landscape of the desert planet Arrakis, home to the monstrous sandworms. Villeneuve praised the location and services provided by the Abu Dhabi Film Commission and UAE-based production services company Epic Films in a promotional behind-the-scenes video, to which Variety has been given exclusive access.

Diego Ramos Bechara editor Riding a sandworm across the desert planet of Arrakis is something most “Dune” fans have undoubtedly wanted to do at one point or another, but it begs the question: how would one actually get off the giant annelids? Well, “Dune: Part Two” director Denis Villeneuve seems to have an answer, telling IndieWire as such in an interview centered on the sequel. “Dune’s” lore established that the Fremen — a fiercely independent group of desert warriors — can ride the worms, controlling and using them in battle or as transportation across a vast terrain, with entire villages riding on their capacious backs. However, we never actually see anyone get off the worms.

Denis Villeneuve is finally back with the release of Dune: Part Two!

Many questions abound with “Dune: Part Two” now in theaters.

Following ecstatic reviews (including ours) and a super impressive Rotten review score of 97, Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two” seems poised to not only conquer the sagging 2024 box office but enliven it, perhaps giving it the shot in the arm it needs. READ MORE: ‘Dune: Part Two’ Review: A Darker, Devastating Blockbuster & Cautionary Tale About Prophecy, Fate & False Idols It’s a colossal film and an immense achievement, but a much darker film, and clearly much darker than I expected (full disclosure: I started reading, but put down Frank Herbert‘s “Dune” before the first film came out; more below).

As her many online fans have noticed, Rebecca Ferguson is playful, eccentric, sometimes very candid, can turn on a dime, and does not suffer fools. Interviewing her can be like riding a wild bull, a bit unpredictable and disarming, and I found that to be very much the case with my latest interview with her about “Dune: Part Two” (read our review here).

Denis Villeneuve is sharing his opinions on television and movies.

Denis Villeneuve is a credited screenwriter on six of the acclaimed features he has directed — including Dune: Part One, for which he received a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination from the Academy but not directing nomination. He is, however, not a fan of dialogue.

“Dune: Part Two” is almost in theaters, reviews have been ecstatic, and hype for the Denis Villeneuve film seems to be off the charts; it’s expected to be the first major blockbuster theatrical release of the year when it opens this weekend, March 1 (read our review here). We spoke to Rebecca Ferguson about her role as Bene Gesserit Lady Jessica in the movie, and while we’ll roll out that full interview ASAP, we did it briefly; at the end of our interview, I asked about her role in “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning.” READ MORE: Christopher McQuarrie Explains The “Tough Decision” Of Killing A Key Character in ‘Dead Reckoning’ Spoilers for anyone who hasn’t seen the film, but it’s almost eight months old at this point; Ferguson’s character, Ilsa Faust, a disavowed MI6 agent, is killed at the hands of the powerful terrorist Gabriel (Esai Morales) in a knife fight.

As Timothée Chalamet’s “Wonka” has quietly crossed the $600 million mark worldwide—a remarkable figure given the film wasn’t a box office smash but clearly had great sustained longevity theatrically—the actor is starring down his next lead role in Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two” (read our review) It’s a film whose hype is so large at the moment it suggests it could best that “Wonka” record, but we’ll see if it has the same kind of four-quadrant appeal.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Denis Villeneuve recently told The Times of London that “movies have been corrupted by television.” His opinion comes from his growing desire to make a movie without any dialogue. “Frankly, I hate dialogue,” the filmmaker told the publication. “Dialogue is for theatre and television.

Timothée Chalamet and Denis Villeneuve have said that they spoke to each other in French on the set of their new film, Dune: Part Two.The pair were speaking to the The New York Times to promote the new film, which is the second part of the adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 896-page sci-fi novel, and the writer of the interview noted that they were speaking in French each other when they arrived. Villeneuve is from Quebec, the French-speaking area of Canada, while Chalamet is a dual American and French citizen.“It was the way that we were able to find intimacy in the chaos.