Dune: Part Two Could Get Early Festival Premiere
Denis Villeneuve's Dune premiered to an eight-minute standing ovation at the Venice International Film Festival in 2021, but Dune: Part Two won't have the same honor of hitting the Lido di Venezia. Because this year's 80th Venice Film Festival is taking place August 30th-September 9th — too early for the special effects-heavy sequel releasing exclusively in theaters on November 3rd — Villeneuve's Dune follow-up could still premiere early at another festival, Deadline reports. One possibility is the 61st annual New York Film Festival, returning to the Film at Lincoln Center September 29th-October 15th, weeks ahead of the anticipated sequel's theatrical bow in November.
Dune was met with fanfare when it held its Venice world premiere in early September 2021, nearly two months ahead of the film's October 22nd release in theaters and on streamer HBO Max. It would go on to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival and NYFF in the weeks before its wide release.
The second part of Villeneuve's epic follows "the journey of Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) as he unites with Chani (Zendaya) and the Fremen while on a warpath of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the universe, he endeavors to prevent a terrible future only he can foresee."
Returning alongside Dune: Part One stars Chalamet and Zendaya are Rebecca Ferguson, Dave Bautista, Stellan Skargard, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, and Charlotte Rampling. The cast is joined by Part Two newcomers Florence Pugh (Marvel's Thunderbolts), Austin Butler (Elvis),Lea Seydoux (No Time to Die), Christopher Walken (The Deer Hunter), and Tim Blake Nelson (Captain America: New World Order).
With Dune 2, Villeneuve and co-writers Jon Spaihts and Eric Roth have "done an amazing job of putting together the pieces in a way that is gonna surprise people. They won't be surprised [by what happens], obviously, because they've read the book, but they'll be surprised by the way they put it together," Bardem said of the sequel at the Cannes Film Festival. "I was very moved by it. It's a movie that is full, and you can feel the weight of it, and at the same time [you can enjoy] the spectacularity of it."
Dune: Part Two will premiere exclusively in theaters on November 3rd from Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures.