Get An Incredible New Look At The Dune Remake
Denis Villeneuve is one of science fiction's most promising directors. His adaptation of the Ted Chiang short story, Story of Your Life (known better to you as Arrival) was one of the most relevant and important films of 2016. Villeneuve followed Arrival with a film most people thought wasn't possible: Blade Runner 2049. Despite all odds, the reimagined classic of the cyberpunk sub-genre managed to stand toe-to-toe with Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, inarguably one of the most significant science fiction features of all time.
After that success, it's no surprise it was Villeneuve's capable hands that found themselves holding the keys to another significant franchise: Frank Herbert's Dune. Quite famously, there has never been a truly successful adaptation of Dune. There have been many attempts, most notably the David Lynch-directed film from 1984 — that version is not, technically speaking, a success.
So, once again, Villeneuve is trying to do the impossible. We've waited a long time to see more of the new Dune, and thanks to Empire Online, we've got three brand new images to take our collective breath away.
Atreides, Fremen, and sandworms, oh my!
Obviously, we've got to start with the most noble of noble Landsraad houses: House Atreides. Cover number one of the latest issue of Empire features our protagonist Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) alongside his father Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac). There's also master-at-arms Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin) and Rebecca Ferguson, playing Lady Jessica. Ferguson will keep her string of playing supernatural characters (she was Rose the Hat in Doctor Sleep), this time as a Bene Gesserit witch.
Next up on cover number two we've got the Fremen, indigenous peoples of Arrakis who are kind of caught in the middle of all the sand-worm-"spice must flow" shenanigans. We get a good look at leader, Stilgar (Javier Bardem) as well as Chani (Zendaya). In addition to the Fremen we also have Liet Keynes (Sharon Duncan-Brewster) who is a man in the books, the secret leader of the Fremen, and the father of Chani. We'll see how much of that transfers over to Villeneueve's adaptation. We even get a peak at fan-favorite Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa), an Atreides Swordmaster whose alliances may (or may not) lie with the Fremen.
Finally, cover number three is a jaw-dropping image of Paul Atreides standing at the mouth of a fearsome, giant sandworm from Arrakis. Very cool that the mouth of the worm looks like a watchful eye — perhaps a hint at the judgment an outsider might feel looking at the clashing houses of Landsraad.
Dune hits theaters on December 18, 2020.