Chiabella James
A crusade is coming. A legend will be born. We now have the first trailer for Dune, an epic and star-studded new version of the classic sci-fi novel series.
The man in charge is Denis Villeneuve, Oscar-winning French-Canadian director who already proved his mastery of thoughtful and grandly spectacular sci-fi with Arrival and Blade Runner 2049. The trailer makes it clear he’s taking things up a notch in terms of scale, as this new adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune books looks set to be an epic of epics. Seriously, get a load of this thing:
Timothee Chalamet plays Paul Atreides, scion of a dynasty of powerful space nobles up to their neck in space legends and space politics. Oscar Isaac is his space dad, staking his clan’s future on a desert planet where space witches, space baddies and absolutely enormous space worms clash amid the wind-whipped glittering sand. Also roaming the dunes is Emmy-nominated Zendaya, the beguiling figure from our young hero’s space dreams.
Playing out to the soaring strains of epic tune Eclipse, originally by Pink Floyd, the trailer also gives a few glimpses of the fittingly stellar cast. Charlotte Rampling, Dave Bautista, Jason Momoa, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Rebecca Ferguson and Stellan Skarsgard appear decked out in lavish costumes amid vast sets and sumptuous imagery, in a film that will clearly give Blade Runner 2049 a run for its money in terms of signature style.
And this is just the start: A sequel is already planned to complete the story, as well as a TV series, Dune: The Sisterhood with Villeneuve also involved.
Dune is scheduled to be released in theaters Dec. 18. Fingers crossed it’s as legendary as the trailer promises.
