Tuesday 26 October 2021

DUNE: PART TWO formally greenlit for October 2023 release

Warner Brothers have greenlit the sequel to Denis Villeneuve's film adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune.


The film - retitled Dune: Part One in the title card - adapts roughly the first half of Frank Herbert's 1965 novel. Part Two will cover the rest of the novel, focusing on the story of how Paul Atreides wins the trust and support of the Fremen to fight back against the vile Harkonnens and their allies, the Emperor and his Sardaukar terror troops.

Dune: Part One launched in overseas market more than a month ago before hitting the UK, USA and China at the end of last week. Ticket sales were above expectations, with the movie scoring over $223 million in worldwide ticket sales to date, with further income from HBO Max (where at least 1.9 million people watched the film in the United States). Given the scale of the COVID pandemic and how many people are still reluctant to watch films in the cinema, the movie's performance was deemed extremely impressive. The film also scored highly among critics.

Director Denis Villeneuve will return to direct the second part of the story, with the entire cast believed to be returning, or at least those whose characters were not killed off in the first half.

Warner Brothers has set a release date of 20 October 2023 and has agreed with Villeneuve that the film will launch exclusively in cinemas.

No comments: