Ever since the announcement of Denis Villeneuve's Dune, fans have been waiting for any news about the project. Considering the film has an epic cast and one of the best science fiction directors of this decade, the movie is already getting great word of mouth based on those two things alone. However, many have been wondering via social media and other forums how in the hell such a massive undertaking could be squeezed into one epic movie. Villeneuve had a long run time with his Blade Runner 2049, but that barely scrapes the surface of the material he has to work with on Dune. Now comes word that the studio definitely has plans for making this into a franchise that will spawn more than one motion picture.
Today, Legendary Pictures CEO Joshua Grode says that this latest version will be more expansive and will definitely be stretched over two films with Villenueve at the helm. When speaking with THR, he had this to say:
“That’s the plan,” Grode said.“There’s a backstory that was hinted at in some of the books [that we expanded]. Also, when you read the book there’s a logical place to stop the movie before the book is over."
The first movie is set to premiere in November 2020. Obviously, the second part depends on how well the first does. We imagine that it'll be huge.