Dune Director Reveals Surprising Detail That Came to Him in the Middle of the Night

The Dune news continues to pour in as the ten-time Oscar-nominated film eyes new cast members for the upcoming sequel, which could become a trilogy. The film’s director, Denis Villeneuve, has spoken a lot about his process of making the movie and recently shared with The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon that a certain detail featured in the film came to him in the middle of the night. 

“There’s a scene… where the Atreides are landing, and I was- there was something missing. There was something about, I wanted to have some glimpse at the culture of the Atreides, and I woke up in the middle of the night suddenly, saying, ‘Bagpipes!’ And lucky enough, my first assistant, Chris Carreras, didn’t panic and brought the bagpipe on set. And then, I think I gained Hans Zimmer’s respect. He accepted that the bagpipes will exist in 10,000 years from now, that was his concession,” Villeneuve shared.

Clearly, the bagpipes worked because Zimmer is up for Best Score at the Oscars. The composer is going up against the music for Encanto, Don’t Look Up, The Power of the Dog, and Parallel Mothers. As for the upcoming sequel,  Dune Part Two is expected to see the return of Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, and Javier Bardem. 

“We have been hearing in the past few decades that it’s not possible to adapt this book and that it’s an impossible task. I think that in the back of the mind of the studio, it’s still the same!” Villeneuve told Total Film in an interview last year. “So the first thing was to prove that there was a beautiful, popular movie that can exist, and I think that I proved that – everybody at Warner Bros and Legendary, they are 100 percent behind the project. They feel that it would need a really bad outcome at the box office to not have a Dune: Part Two because they love the movie. They are proud of the movie, so they want the movie to move forward. And they still did half of it. So, you know, I’m very optimistic.”

“I’m writing [Part Two] now, and I feel like I’m eight years old again,” he added. “That’s very uncommon for me. It’s the first time I’ve experienced it where I’m watching one of my movies, and I have a moment of deep gratitude, of deep joy, and I say, ‘Thank you, life, for having allowed me to bring that to the screen.’ [laughs] I don’t know how other people will feel about it. But me? Denis Villeneuve when he was 14 years old? Thank you.” 

Dune is now streaming on HBO Max. Dune: Part 2 is currently scheduled to be released on October 20, 2023.