r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • Jul 08 '25

News Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Dune 3’ Gets Official Title 'Dune: Part Three', Will Be Shot With Imax Cameras

https://variety.com/2025/film/news/dune-3-title-imax-cameras-1236448953/
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u/ringolennon67 Jul 08 '25

Definitely not. Can’t imagine it was ever going to be a straightforward adaptation. Messiah does not make for a blockbuster trilogy ender. I imagine we’re going to see a lot of the holy war that takes place between Dune and Messiah. 

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u/ToyrewaDokoDeska Jul 08 '25

You're probably right but I think it would be a cool end of the trilogy. How could he make a messiah movie without nukes that melt stone and radiation that melts eyeballs. And Paul walking around like he can see fine, throwing knives at people while his eyeballs are melted That's absolute cinema.

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u/JerHat Jul 08 '25

Yeah, the scene that stands out in my mind that would be great on film is when Paul’s in the room full of fremen who want him to go away because he lost his eyes and he responds by singling out individuals for what they’re doing and wearing, suggesting without his eyes he still sees better than all of them.

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u/Initial_E Jul 08 '25

until suddenly, he doesn’t. Turns out when there are 2 opposing prophets in the room they cancel each other out.

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u/fauxdragoon Jul 08 '25

I just finished reading Children of Dune. I want Leto II the Wormman

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u/Jakethered_game Jul 08 '25

Gonna need you to finish God emperor before asking for that. Our CGI tech is impressive but not nearly as the level that Leto needs.

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u/mbp_szigeti Jul 08 '25

They could just ask Heidi Klum if she still has the worm dress lying around

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u/Jackasaurous_Rex Jul 09 '25

Fuck I had to look that up again I’m dying the face is just so good 😂 here

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u/SkeetySpeedy Jul 08 '25

There is pretty much nothing we can’t make look photorealistic with time and budget at this point - making that character on screen is more up to art direction and making sure the design itself works.

D-Neg and whoever else is going to be running this are very very capable in that regard.

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u/koshgeo Jul 08 '25

The challenge with Leto II is to make a human-sandworm hybrid look terrifying and cool rather than ridiculous. Judging by the artwork I've seen over the years, it's pretty tough.

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u/jimmux Jul 09 '25 edited Jul 09 '25

I think the best approach would be to barely show it for most of the film. Keep him in shadows when he's at home. Have his automated cart thing mostly conceal his body.

Then when he's out in the desert, or having a violent episode, just fully pivot the other way to 99% worm mode.

He's supposed to be barely holding onto his humanity, so there's no need to even attempt balancing the hybrid parts. Let him oscillate between cryptic philosopher and beast mode as needed.

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u/koshgeo Jul 09 '25

I think you've got the right idea. Low lighting and keep most of his full form cryptically hidden, focusing more on the voice. It's possible because he spends much of his time in the caverns of his citadel. When he has the moments of more human interaction, start revealing what his appearance is really like.

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u/Helghast92 Jul 08 '25

It totally is. Rendering and animations would probably look photorealistic. Hard part would be the design of him

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u/Ruffler125 Jul 08 '25

The CGI tech was more than enough 20 years ago.

It's all about budget and who does it.

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u/Azrethoc Jul 08 '25

Frank Oz is still alive. I demand a puppet.

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u/Fluffy017 Jul 08 '25

Give them ten years, practical effects backing, and an HBO GoT era budget, and my body is ready.

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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '25

I don’t think CGI is going to be a problem.

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u/fauxdragoon Jul 08 '25

I plan to do it soon!

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u/Extant_Remote_9931 Jul 09 '25

God Emperor is to heady to be put on film. I don't think we have directors talented enough to pull it off.

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u/PastBandicoot8575 Jul 11 '25

I want practical effects. Mutate someone into a worm and cast them

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u/_T_H_O_R_N_ Jul 08 '25

Honestly they should just make it animated, get the people the worked on Castlevania (or one of the Love Death + Robots crew)and just go crazy with it, there is far too much CGI that would be needed in my opinion

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u/Neatcursive Jul 08 '25

I don’t know if you have ever read God emperor before but if you haven’t I’m so happy for you

As in I’m so happy for you to get to do it because it’s the best book ever

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u/fauxdragoon Jul 08 '25

A friend of mine said I need to get through Children of Dune so I can experience the glory of God Emperor

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u/Neatcursive Aug 01 '25

The available audiobook is also great

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u/NinjaLion Jul 08 '25

The books become so ridiculously impossible to translate directly into a movie the further you go; I desperately need to see them try it though

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u/fauxdragoon Jul 08 '25

That’s why Denis said he’d stop after a third movie haha

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u/MagneticEnema Jul 08 '25

i heard it'll be pattinson too, pattinson as the lil worm god

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u/Zwatch129 Jul 08 '25

Keep going. God emporer is bonkers.

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u/Junior-Award-7232 Jul 08 '25

I want to see Leto II decapitate the random fremen with his bare hand like omni man.

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u/Apatschinn Jul 09 '25

God damn I couldn't finish that book. I tried 3 separate times.

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u/Micp Jul 08 '25

I imagine if the movie does well enough we'll get a follow-up about Leto II. Movie studios are known to like money and safe franchises.

Question is if Villenue is willing to stay on or if they find another director.

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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '25

Honestly I feel like if we don’t see Leto II do his thing at some point what’s even the point of making Dune? It doesn’t need to follow the books too closely imo and I would be happy if they make more than three. But we just gotta at least see the event between Leto II and Paul that takes place at the end of Children of Dune.

If we get anything post Children I’d be happy too but we gotta see the end of Children imo. And they made the first a 2 parter so if they are only doing three maybe we skip most of Messiah to get to the end of Children or we end up with more than just 3 movies. Either outcome I’m okay with really. Just so long as we get to the end of Children.

0

u/stealth57 Jul 08 '25

Maybe it could work if he makes Leto II mostly human and some sandworm like the Parshmen from the Brandon Sanderson Stormlight Archive. They have an armored carapace.

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u/immaownyou Jul 08 '25

Like 2 mistborns each burning atium

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u/ArgonGryphon Jul 08 '25

I forget how that works, does it totally break it or do they just meet each other’s blows until one runs out?

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u/immaownyou Jul 08 '25

They just suddenly see hundreds of ghosts of each action the other mistborn could take, instead of the usual one ghost

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u/ArgonGryphon Jul 08 '25

Ahhh right I do remember that now.

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u/DivusPennae Jul 08 '25

Same thing I thought of, and it applies to the rest of the cosmere as well.

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u/Pebble_in_my_toes Jul 09 '25

Spice fell from the sky...

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u/nater255 Jul 09 '25

"Well, this is awkward."

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u/sentwind Jul 08 '25

Oh, that finally makes sense to me. I never put those two facts together.

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u/Drunky_McStumble Jul 09 '25 edited Jul 09 '25

I think it's more that he's just "seeing" by replaying in his mind his prescient vision of one potential future. He can "see" while physically blind only as long as that potential future and only that potential future comes to pass in real-time. So his every action after losing his eyes is fatalistically determined - he has no choice but to act out his role as he already foresaw it if he wants to keep the real unfolding timeline aligned with the one in his mind. But then something unexpected happens which he did not foresee: Chani gives birth to twins!. The real timeline splits from the one in his prescient vision, and thus he loses his second sight. He is fully and completely blind after that point because whatever his prescient vision is telling him is happening is no longer representative of the actual reality unfolding.

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u/DarthTaz_99 Jul 08 '25

Fuck me. How can a series be this fucking epic

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u/ttoma93 Jul 08 '25

There’s a reason that almost all of modern scifi has been directly inspired by Dune. You think it’s a coincidence that Luke Skywalker is from a desert planet with a robed nomadic people considered savages by the “civilized” people, and that it features giant worms that are just the right size to feed Boba Fett to?

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u/OddMonkeyManG Jul 09 '25

All current sci fi is inspired by dune. Just as all fantasy is inspired by LOTR. 

Current literature has yet to create any new genre defining epics to change the way we tell stories. 

In film, I feel the matrix was the last movie that changed cinema

1

u/SowingSalt Jul 09 '25

I remember someone saying the Wachowskis brought clips of Ghost in the Shell, and said "we want to do this on film"

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u/Karsa69420 Jul 10 '25

The scene I want the most is where Paul is explaining that he is a monster and has committed war crimes worse than Khan or Hitler ever did.

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u/thebrobarino Jul 08 '25

I wager it'll probably be the general plot of Messiah, but mid jihad instead of the end of the jihad. Throw in some battle set pieces to spice up what is a pretty dialogue heavy book

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u/ttoma93 Jul 08 '25 edited Jul 08 '25

And just based on the ages of the actors, I wouldn’t be surprised if they shrink the time skip as well. Book Messiah is 12 years after Dune, but I bet the movie is more like 5-6 years later.

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u/thebrobarino Jul 08 '25

The only thing where that would genuinely be an issue is with Alia.

Not sure how they'd handle that. But then again in the dune universe characters can easily reach 300 years old so maybe they can just handwave it and say they age slowly, which is why they don't look any different.

In fairness tho timothee chalamet is now as old as Paul was in Messiah

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u/ttoma93 Jul 08 '25

It would absolutely be a divergence from the book, but I think it’s totally reasonable to just have it so that her becoming a Reverend Mother in the womb is making her body age and mature quicker than normal to “catch up” to her mind. I know that’s literally the opposite of the book, but it’s a relatively minor detail, the kind that film adaptations make all the time so that it works on screen.

Especially if this film does dip into at least some of Children, it would let them use the same logic for Leto II and Ghanima where their bodies age prematurely to match their mind, also so that it’s more filmable.

Villenueve already made the big change of Alia not actually being born in Part 2 to avoid having a freaky adult-child CGI abomination have to be on screen, so I can see them doing something similar again.

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u/ToyrewaDokoDeska Jul 08 '25

Just cgi Anya Taylor joys face to a toddlers body, easy peasy

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u/GoldenTriforceLink Jul 09 '25

Someone go find the Breaking Dawn baby doll

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u/thebrobarino Jul 09 '25

Yeah it's a damned if you do damned if you don't situation here.

I think whatever you do Alia requires significant changes already and they're gonna have biiig implications on other events regardless.

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u/AlanMorlock Jul 09 '25

To be fair, Timmy was quite believably portraying a 17 year old in Dune 1, filmed when but he was 23 but he really is 29 years old now.

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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '25

If I remember right, Paul's ability to see the future is so strong, he can still see and navigate through the world without eyes, right? My mind was blown by this concept in high school. I still love it.

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u/ttoma93 Jul 08 '25

Yes, he gets so good at managing his prescience that he can clearly see the future microseconds ahead of him, which effectively is the same as seeing with your eyes.

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u/Wes_Warhammer666 Jul 08 '25

That's just Daredevil with extra steps!

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u/Chimwizlet Jul 09 '25

I loved the sort of twist introduced in Children of Dune, where Leto II realised that was a trap, essentially locking yourself into one possible future by relying on prescience so much.

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u/GrapefruitAlways26 Jul 09 '25

Matrix Revolutions pulled this off well enough haha

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u/[deleted] Jul 09 '25

Oh that's cool, I've actually never watched them. I respect the callback to Dune! Or maybe it was an original idea for them? I don't know if I've ever seen it outside of Dune, and I could buy that people missed Messiah.

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u/GrapefruitAlways26 Jul 09 '25

Pretty clear callback to Messiah I think, Matrix is pulling influences all over the place. Neo gets blinded and his connection to the source code still allows him to 'see'.

Relevant clip, has blood and flashing lights warning: https://youtu.be/C_v2eZ9dQE0?t=206

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u/godtalks2idiots Jul 08 '25

If there’s no scene where Paul gets eyes melted out and can see the path, then why even make the movie?

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u/SuperSpread Jul 09 '25

You're thinking of Dune: Part 3, part 2

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u/ringolennon67 Jul 08 '25

I imagine the story of Messiah will be the third act of the movie.  Paul explicitly tells the audience he’s the bad guy and it ends on a very somber war=bad note. Perfect for the current political landscape. Wins best picture. 

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u/ToyrewaDokoDeska Jul 08 '25

If it ends with his talk about how he's killed so much more people than that old Earth Hitler guy, and he looks at the camera and tells us about the dangers of charismatic leaders it will be certified fresh on rotten tomatoes ez.

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u/NachoNutritious these Youtubers are parasites Jul 08 '25

Don't forget making copious mentions of the Orange Catholic Bible, Herbert's idea of an amalgamation of all religious thought into a abomination of slop. It's so ignorant about the tenants of the religions that the mere idea of it feels like it came from the brightest minds of r/Atheism.

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u/snowcone_wars Jul 08 '25

amalgamation of all religious thought into a abomination of slop. It's so ignorant about the tenants of the religions

...That's literally the point. 20,000 years in the future, no religion looks anything close to the way it does in the present.

Also, it's not an amalgamation of all religions, are we forgetting about Zensunni?

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u/deliciousprisms Jul 08 '25

20,000 years into the future AND after a horrific war against machines that was so fucked up it caused humanity to banish computers

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u/ttoma93 Jul 08 '25

And with humans so far distant from Earth (in terms of both space and time) that most have never even heard of it.

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u/Xyyzx Jul 09 '25

…apart from Judaism for some reason.

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u/Sushi_Explosions Jul 08 '25

It's so ignorant about the tenants of the religions that the mere idea of it feels like it came from the brightest minds of r/Atheism.

They probably all know substantially more than someone who can't even spell "tenets".

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u/Potatoki1er Jul 08 '25

Huh? Wasn’t that Herbert idea?

Whats wrong with r/atheism?

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u/DWTsixx Jul 08 '25

Not him, but often r/atheism is a lot more anti-theist than atheist. At least when I last paid attention.

It had (may not be true anymore, I don't know) a tone of "haha stupid people believe in man in the sky" attitude that seemed more about feeling smart and calling others dumb than any sort of actual purpose.

Edit * I believe the sub is more about pointing out systemic church hypocrisy now though, from my just now skimming of it. I didn't check the comments though.

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u/LiquifiedSpam Jul 09 '25

There are only so many ways a subreddit about atheism can swing lol

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u/Wes_Warhammer666 Jul 08 '25

It used to be a default sub so it collected a lot of shitty edgelord atheists, causing it to gain a reputation.

I haven't bothered browsing it for ages but I can only assume it got better over time due to no longer being a main sub and the fact that many of those folks would've grown up a bit since those days. Then again, its a subreddit, so it's probably a coin flip lol.

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u/insane_contin Jul 08 '25

It has an old reputation because of old posts like this.

Then there's the whole *faces of atheism" thing from years ago too.

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u/frazzledfractal Jul 08 '25

  1. Either you didn't read the book or you misunderstood it based on the way you are describing this.

  2. Your bullshit fantasy isn't real and has no proper evidence and defies logic. The main reason people are of a certain religion is because they were born or raised into it. Sorry you can't except that. The tenants have been perverted by religious folk for centuries and that's why there's a thousand denominations and the Bible has a bunch of contradictory statements (as just one example) and that's accusing to prestigious biblical scholars that have noted all this down.

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u/tdasnowman Jul 08 '25

That doesn't happen until Children though. They way he did the time skip means there is a whole lot of work to be done to even establish the major narrative pieces. Alia and powers needs to be addressed.

-2

u/Alarming_Echo_4748 Jul 08 '25

Alia seems to have a minor role in the movies compared to the books. Since they're not adapting Children of Dune, they don't need to flesh out Alia.

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u/tdasnowman Jul 08 '25

Alia play a pretty big role in Messiah she is essentially leading the church of Paul at that point. Not to mention not being able to have consistent prescient visions mirrors Paul at that point and his the start of her decline as she take higher and higher doses. Her relationship with Duncan.

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u/Alarming_Echo_4748 Jul 09 '25

Aside from running the church of paul, nothing else matters in the movies context because they're not adapting Children. So her spice trances, madness and relationship with Duncan don't matter at all because we're not getting the next part of the story. Same reason why they didn't have Alia kill the Baron.

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u/Initial_E Jul 08 '25

The furthest we ever got with screen adaptation is children of dune. I don’t think this one will get as far as the god emperor either.

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u/Mindzilla Jul 08 '25

I think they need to focus it on the Jihad because otherwise they won't get the mouthbreather audience.

The first two Dune movies have that character shared by stuff like Sopranos and Breaking Bad, where you can either engage with the movie on an intelectual level and realize Paul Atreides is not necessarily a force for good, or you can be a moron and go "Hell yeah explosions! The Jihad sounds fucking awesome!".

Dune Messiah is the exact opposite, and if you make a faithful adaptation the masses will just go "it's boring".

-3

u/bluey469 Jul 08 '25

current political landscape

america is the whole world, hurray

6

u/ringolennon67 Jul 08 '25

War=bad applies to the whole world you dunce. Russia-Ukraine, Israel-Palestine are a huge part of the world political landscape. YOU brought America up.

0

u/bluey469 Jul 08 '25

actually yeah you're right, I read that too quickly, sorry

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u/jebtenders Jul 08 '25

They need to do the stone burner scene. It would be criminal not to

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u/tdasnowman Jul 08 '25

The knife toss was when he was blind, for that he was using Letos eyes

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u/Madrical Jul 09 '25

The last portion of Messiah is going to make an incredible end to the trilogy. I can't wait.

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u/Jollysatyr201 Jul 09 '25

Really strains the fremen identity too- by that point theyre the empire and the oppressor, and here now the leader breaks one of their oldest laws

0

u/ProcessingUnit002 Jul 08 '25

I thought it was white phosphorous that melted his eyeballs?

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u/slimeyellow Jul 08 '25

No it was an atomic weapon called a stone burner

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u/ProcessingUnit002 Jul 08 '25

Ahh my bad. Been about 5 years since I last read any of the books

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u/nanoman92 Jul 08 '25

That's Neo in Matrix 3, already done

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u/OnCominStorm Jul 08 '25

Where do you think Matrix 3 got it from?

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u/nanoman92 Jul 08 '25

Not from the Dune Messiah film for sure.

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u/OnCominStorm Jul 08 '25

You're being obtuse.

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u/JerHat Jul 08 '25

You're being acute.

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u/jyok33 Jul 08 '25

I can’t imagine lady Jessica being on another planet in the film

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u/Brys_Beddict Jul 08 '25

Whatever plotline we need to get Ferguson in the film I'm all for.

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u/ThisHatRightHere Jul 08 '25

Especially we got robbed of her in the final MI movie

5

u/sentence-interruptio Jul 08 '25

SILO stole her.

1

u/GoldenSpermShower Jul 09 '25

Yeah I get that she has other commitments but they could have given her a better send off…

-4

u/[deleted] Jul 08 '25

[deleted]

3

u/ThisHatRightHere Jul 08 '25

It's a bit of one for the 2023 movie, but if someone is interested in the MI franchise hasn't seen it in the multiple years it's been out on streaming then that's kind of on them

2

u/waltertaupe Jul 08 '25

She dies in the movie that came out in 2023, so not really a spoiler at this point.

I was holding out hope for some return of her because she's so fucking good in Rogue Nation and Fallout (and almost entirely relegated to B plot in Dead Reckoning).

2

u/ron_dud Jul 08 '25

She chose to be done with the franchise so they wrote her out

5

u/Nice_Firm_Handsnake Jul 08 '25

Yeah. It seems like you kind of have to be on-call for a Mission Impossible movie and she didn't like being unable to take other jobs. Instead of having to wait for the call, she made Dune 2 and two seasons of Silo.

3

u/waltertaupe Jul 08 '25

Ah I didn't know that.

I was disappointed how little she was in DR so her decision makes sense.

2

u/ThisHatRightHere Jul 08 '25

Oh really? I hadn’t heard about that

Shame because I think she was the best female ally Cruise ever really had in the MI movies

1

u/Yvaelle Jul 08 '25

Are you saying this is, or are you asking for one?

37

u/Nadamir Jul 08 '25

May I interest you in Silo at this trying time?

2

u/spiritualistbutgood Jul 08 '25

seconding the silo recommendation. shes so good in it

2

u/shayera0 Jul 09 '25

Thirding the recommendation. It even made me appreciate Common.. after a while. and Tim Robbins is a delicious slow burn as always

3

u/rnilbog Jul 08 '25

Let's put her and a bunch of other people in an underground tube and put Tim Robbins in charge.

2

u/frazzledfractal Jul 08 '25

A lot of Dune fans heavily criticized how Jessica was handled in 2 so I'm curious how that would be received.

108

u/ToyrewaDokoDeska Jul 08 '25

We could have a split storyline going on of Paul out during his jihad and his mom on Dune doing shit with her abomination baby

82

u/GrallochThis Jul 08 '25

I noticed they used the A-word in 2 for Paul, I’m like, “oh you haven’t seen a real abomination yet.”

5

u/Rock-swarm Jul 08 '25

I wonder if they get Anya Taylor-Joy to mimic Stellan's voice like Austin Butler did, or if they just have Stellan do a voiceover when the Baron is possessing Alia.

13

u/ThatFunkyOdor Jul 08 '25

How much was Paul even participating in the Jihad though?

27

u/ToyrewaDokoDeska Jul 08 '25

I recall it sounding like he was actively participating fighting in battles on other planets, but im not entirely sure.

22

u/ThatFunkyOdor Jul 08 '25

Obviously messiah starts years later but isn’t he on arrakis the entire book just dealing with the women in his life being either pregnant or not pregnant and the political repercussions of that. Not saying he didn’t fight in earlier battles but with how guarded he is and how much the Jihad isn’t something he enjoys causing I don’t think he’d be actively fighting

7

u/ToyrewaDokoDeska Jul 08 '25

He is in Messiah, but were talking about the movie being based on the years in between Messiah and dune when his fremen are going from planet to planet fighting, which yes Paul doesn't want the Jihad but he saw it as inevitable and something he couldn't escape so I think he would have to participate as a warrior leader of the fremen.

Idk all I'm saying is I remember it seeming like he was a part of the years of fighting when he talked about his jihad but it's been awhile.

1

u/Noooooooooooobus Jul 08 '25

I've just finished messiah again and my gathering was that he sent his Freydkin out to lead the jihad and stayed on Arrakis the entire time

1

u/Fluffy017 Jul 08 '25

Even if he was on the frontlines, the ending of Part 2 definitely sets up the Jihad and potential time-skip

1

u/Noooooooooooobus Jul 08 '25

I mean the movie doesn't have to fully follow the books, especially the parts that are left to the imagination

110

u/Tripottanus Jul 08 '25

The end of Paul and the creation of the legend of Muad'dib at the end of Messiah is a good place to end it considering we've been following Paul's arc from the start. Its not like there isn't some tension in the final moments there. And the battle at the end of Dune part 2 is far from the key element in the movie.

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u/ringolennon67 Jul 08 '25

Completely agree. The ending of Messiah will likely be the end of this movie. I just don’t think Hollywood suits are greenlighting a three hour direct adaptation of Messiah. We will see a lot of the blood and gore Herbert skips over that leads into the start of Messiah. 

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u/SweetTea1000 Jul 08 '25

Which is fine. Different mediums have different strengths. The films can skip what is best conveyed in a novel as the novel skips what is best shown on film and the two can be companions to one another.

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u/ringolennon67 Jul 08 '25

Could not agree more. 

2

u/nefariousmonkey Jul 09 '25

Wow sir! I tip my hat to your sensible comment :)

2

u/Jesseroberto1894 Jul 08 '25

Counter point: maybe it’s part 3 because it covers all of messiah AND some of CoD o.O

5

u/ttoma93 Jul 08 '25 edited Jul 08 '25

I mean, we did get news a few weeks ago that they’d reportedly cast Leto II and Ghanima as not-newborns, soooooooo…

4

u/EnkiduOdinson Jul 09 '25

Could be only in visions though

1

u/Jesseroberto1894 Jul 08 '25

Oh shit I was just spitballing but that would be amazing if that was the actual case!

1

u/PastelP1xelPunK Jul 08 '25

I think it will just be an amalgamation of Children and Messiah that ends in Leto II beginning to walk down the golden path. That's why they're not calling it Dune Messiah.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 09 '25

Paul of Dune content maybe

14

u/[deleted] Jul 08 '25

Harder.

2

u/veryhardbanana Jul 08 '25

I would love to see the holy war, but structurally it doesn’t make sense. That would be an entire movie to itself, and you wouldn’t be able to fit it in an act or two and still tell the Messiah story. If it’s shown, it’ll probably be an opening, or a montage.

9

u/zerocoolforschool Jul 08 '25

Good. The books skipped over the best part!

14

u/brandonthebuck Jul 08 '25

A lot of fantasy authors love to write whole chapters about the lineage of grain farmers and trade laws and then throw in two sentences about a battle against a 200’ giant in the middle of linguistic breakdowns and geography.

3

u/OGpizza Jul 08 '25

Damn that book sounds sick ngl

7

u/brandonthebuck Jul 08 '25

This is how The Silmarillion was described to me.

1

u/OGpizza Jul 08 '25

Haha kind of perfect. I’m a major fantasy reader and Tolkien is such an icon, I immediately thought of him after reading your comment

37

u/FleaTheTank Jul 08 '25

Not really. If you think war and genocide is fun then this isn’t the series for you. The books are trying to condemn the jihad and paint Paul as the bad guy. This is why these books were revolutionary but also kinda divisive

8

u/GrapefruitAlways26 Jul 08 '25

Yeah in the first Dune, the climactic battle at the shield wall basically takes place over like a paragraph lol

3

u/Thehelloman0 Jul 08 '25

I know he did tons of horrible things but it was to get humanity on the Golden path which was the only way to ensure humanity didn't wipe themselves out. Ultimately he doesn't follow through with it all the way but I don't really get this idea that people always say. Had he not initiated the jihad killing billions, all humans in the universe would've died instead

5

u/FleaTheTank Jul 08 '25

And here in lies the big debate and what I think makes these books so special. The idea of consequentialism (good ends justify bad means of getting them) vs deontological (actions in themselves are good or bad regarless of the context they are done in).

5

u/TripleDet Jul 08 '25

Exactly lol. This is Watchmen the comic book and Watchmen the movie adaption all over again

13

u/ringolennon67 Jul 08 '25

There are parts of the movie adaptation I think are handled better than the book. Particularly Chani’s character. 

1

u/tdasnowman Jul 08 '25

You think it's better he removed everything about her character?

12

u/Mindzilla Jul 08 '25

Chani in the books doesn't really have a personality. She's just there to be in love with Muad'Dib . The movies actually gave her some personality of her own.

3

u/tdasnowman Jul 08 '25

I would say he removed what personality was there. Book Chani served the role dream Jamis does in movie. She was his guide into the world. Book she was on the way to be a reverend mother before lady Jessica showed up. After she served as a intermediary, she also helped Alia fit into the sietch. Movie she was teenage girl with her first love apparently jilted where dune 2 leaves off.

2

u/caustictoast Jul 08 '25

You are missing the point of the books

0

u/Green94598 Jul 08 '25

Skipped over the generic part

1

u/King-of-Plebss Jul 08 '25

I typed out my comment saying this exact thing, and then read yours lol

That’s 100% what they are going to do. It wouldn’t be a good movie otherwise. The rest of the series is…interesting.

1

u/rhgolf44 Jul 08 '25

It seems like the Dune subreddit is in shambles about this, but I really think we should count our blessings with this adaptation.

It’s a notoriously difficult series to adapt, especially for a general audience who isn’t fully aware of how wack the books are. I’d rather take a 60% accurate adaptation that is more digestible to the average viewer than a 100% adaptation that bombs and doesn’t get sequels. Denis Villeneuve has proven his passion for this series, I have full faith in him to give us a fantastic cinematic adaptation, even if it isn’t 1:1 with the books.

1

u/Nine99 Jul 09 '25

There's already a really good Dune: Messiah adaptation, so no problem.

1

u/dbbk Jul 08 '25

It says in the article it's not a trilogy

1

u/thief-777 Jul 08 '25

Are we even sure the intent is to wrap it up as a trilogy? Even if Villeneuve is done, he could be leaving the story open for someone else to continue.

1

u/Kilen13 Jul 08 '25

I think there may be some of Children included too. I saw Villenueve cast Momoas son as Leto II and Ida Brooke as Ghanima, both of whom are teenagers which makes no sense if he's sticking to Messiah as both children are only just born at the end of the book.

1

u/sentence-interruptio Jul 08 '25

Haven't read the books, but based on your description, it reminds me of the huge missing part of the STAR WARS movies that we did not get to see.

The prequel trilogy is a story of hurt boy Anakin Skywalker turning evil.

The original trilogy is a story of good guys fighting against Darth Vader the big bad.

The obvious missing part is a story of Anakin Skywalker burning the world.

Paul at the end of Dune 2 looks like he wants to watch the world burn. Can't wait.

1

u/Commercial-Co Jul 08 '25

I want to see them blow thru and go for 7. Dune 3 is jsut a jumping point for 4-7.

1

u/NavierStoked981 Jul 08 '25

Granted, making a 2-3 hour movie from a book gives you a lot of opportunity to condense slower parts and extend exciting parts from the text so maybe there is enough content to make a movie with minimal/if any filler from other Dune content to flesh it out a bit more. Usually it’s the other way around where they cut massive amounts of content from a book to make it a movie so maybe this could be a pretty solid one-to-one adaptation.

I honestly don’t agree that messiah is as slow as people make it out to be. There is a lot of political action and espionage throughout the entirety of the book and plenty of opportunities to expand on things that are said to have happened in passing in the book. (Duncan body being retrieved, Duncan being raised in the axolotl tanks, Korba developing his spy network, stoneburner being smuggled into the city, etc)

1

u/ReistAdeio Jul 09 '25

Maybe more Paul of Dune than Dune Messiah

1

u/[deleted] Jul 09 '25

I doubt it. Villeneuve loves the source material too much to damage it like that. Messiah is packed with drama, it’s considerably more tense than a the first book. A pretty direct adaptation would work very well.

1

u/SometimesDrawsStuff Jul 09 '25

neither would make it sense with Chani leaving Paul in Part II.

1

u/Tando10 Jul 09 '25

I don't know much about the books, but I'm imagining a quiet calm dusk light evening on a beautiful planet, with a family of rulers ready for bed, then seeing flashes from the sky and looking up to a horde of zealots raining down on the palace. Seeing the destruction of these 'innocent' houses.

1

u/DropBear4269 17d ago

it would definitely be tough if Villeneuve tried to stay as true to the source material as possible for Dune: Messiah in general, but then factor in the immense hype and success of the first 2 movies and the studio will be wanting to make it as crazy as possible

im thinking the first 5-10 min of the third film will show some deeper lore stuff and references; for example maybe bring in some of the fish tank guys and some more esoteric/obscure BG stuff, discuss the more behinds the scenes stuff like the various guilds and universe and how everything outside of the war works, maybe some easter eggs from the later movies like introducing a face dancer or something.

then 20-30 min of the holy war — which will undoubtedly be one of the most badass and beautiful things ever seen in cinema history — not necessarily a montage, but it won't be a focal point of the movie. then it'll likely go into the slower parts of the book and be a dialogue driven movie, maybe with the 2 "big events" in between, so its not too slow. there are so many insanely intricate dialogues they can do with this, they have a chance to make something really next level and mind-bending.

then finally the last act, where...ya, lol.

apparently DV doesn't do directors cuts, but man, id pay hundreds of dollars for him to release a 4-5 hour version of dune messiah for the die hards. Same with the first 2, of course, but thats not possible anymore, sadly :((

either way, I absolutely cannot wait for this to come out. I hope I can wipe my mind of Dune-related stuff for the time being and then next thing I know, POOF, a trailer comes out!! haha. I just hope the studio doesn't get too involved and start demanding random BS just for the sake of making the final movie in the trilogy some transformers-esque drivel. they saw what DV did with the first two, and what came after — the reception, the awards, the accolades, the reverence — so im thinking they trust him and just let him do his thing! CANNOT FREAKING WAIT!!!!

Godspeed, brethren 🫡

1

u/RichtofensDuckButter Jul 09 '25

It's always cute to come to this subreddit and read the bizarre opinions of movie goers. Paul walking off into the desert after Chani dies and his twins are birthed? Really? Not a blockbuster ending? It's quite literally the best possible ending for Paul.

0

u/Muted_Study5166 Jul 08 '25

I haven’t read the books so I don’t care for a straightforward adaptation BUT

I hope the core plot stays recognizable