Dune: Part Two: Steven Spielberg Reveals His Tremendous Praise for Denis Villeneuve’s Sequel

Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two was released earlier this month and it’s been a success at the box office and gotten rave reviews. The movie is currently up on Rotten Tomatoes with a 93% critics score and 95% audience score. Turns out, critics and moviegoers aren’t the only people praising the sequel. Legendary director, Steven Spielberg, who is best known for helming films such as Jaws and Jurassic Park, interviewed Villeneuve on the DGA’s Director’s Cut podcast, and shared high praise for Dune: Part Two (via Variety). 

During their conversation, Spielberg told Villeneuve, “You have made one of the most brilliant science-fiction films I’ve ever seen.”

“It’s an honor for me to sit here and talk to you,” Spielberg shared. “Let me start by saying there are filmmakers who are the builders of worlds. It’s not a long list and we know who a lot of them are. Starting with [Georges] Méliès and Disney and Kubrick, George Lucas. Ray Harryhausen, I include in that list. Fellini built his own worlds. Tim Burton. Obviously Wes Anderson, Peter Jackson, James Cameron, Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott, Guillermo del Toro. The list goes on but it’s not that long of a list, and I deeply, fervently believe that you are one of its newest members.”

“This is a desert-loving story, but for such a desert-loving film there is such a yearning for water in this movie,” Spielberg continued. “For all the sand you have in this film, it’s really about water. The sacred waters that are yearning for green meadows and the blue water of life. You film the desert to resemble an ocean, a sea. The sandworms were like sea serpents. And that scene surfing the sandworms is one of the greatest things I have ever seen. Ever! But you made the desert look like a liquid.”

Will Dune 3 Happen?

Even though Dune: Part Two was just released, fans are already wondering about the threequel. Villeneuve recently spoke about the next installment, Dune: Messiah, and explained that he’s not interested in rushing out the film. However, composer Hans Zimmer has confirmed that he’s already working on the therequel’s music. 

“I did both movies back to back, which makes absolute sense for me,” Villeneuve shared with Empire Magazine. “I felt that it was a good idea to move forward right after Part One. We were already designing, writing et cetera. But it also meant that for six years I was on Arrakis non-stop, and I think it will be healthy to step back a little bit. First, make sure that we have a strong screenplay. The thing I want to avoid is not having something ready. I never did it, and now I feel it could be dangerous because of the enthusiasm. We need to make sure all the ideas are on paper.”

He continued, “If we go back, it needs to be real, it needs to be relevant, if ever I do Dune Messiah, [it’s] because it’s going to be better than Part Two. Otherwise, I don’t do it.”

Dune: Part Two is now playing in theaters.