While the majority of movie footage is shot during principal photography, oftentimes the bigger productions also set aside time for reshoots later down the line in order to capture any extra material needed to strengthen what will eventually be shown in theaters. Well, word’s come in that Dune is heading for an extra round of filming, with its reshoots happening this August.
Oscar Isaac, who plays Duke Leto Atreides in Dune, confirmed the news with the following statement:
We’re going to do some additional shooting in mid August… they’re saying in Budapest in Hungary. I saw some things cut together and it just looks amazing. Denis [Villeneuve] is a real artist and it will be exciting to see it come together. It’s kind of wild that we’re doing some additional shooting a few months before it’s supposed to come out, but that happened with Star Wars as well.
Dune’s principal photography kicked off in March 2019 and wrapped up the following July, with filming taking place in Hungary, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Norway. So Oscar Isaac and his costars will be in familiar surroundings when they return to Budapest later this summer. And while Hungary is one of the countries that’s allowing productions to resume filming after the current health crisis ground that kind of work to a halt months ago, Dune will have “extensive” safety measures in place for the cast and crew.
For those of you wondering if these reshoots will affect Dune’s release date, in addition to providing Oscar Isaac’s comments, Deadline also mentioned that this extra filming is not expected to push the Denis Villeneuve-directed epic out of its current December slot. That’s not to say Dune still couldn’t be delayed in the future, but if that did happen, it wouldn’t be for reshoots-related reasons.
As for what the Dune reshoots will entail, while no specific information was provided, there’s no indication that there’s anything wrong with the footage captured last year. As things stand now, Dune is reportedly “sizing up to be epic,” so rather than this being an example of reshoots drastically altering a movie at the last minute, it sounds like this is just the Dune cast and crew smoothing over some of the edges before the final cut is assembled.
Rather than cram all of the material from the original novel into one movie, as David Lynch did with his version of Dune, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune will adapt Frank Herbert’s seminal story across two movies. As such, moviegoers can see the first half of the tale unfold this winter, and while Dune 2 hasn’t officially gotten the green light yet, Jon Spaihts, who co-wrote Dune and is attached to the HBO Max series Dune: The Sisterhood as an executive producer, is writing the sequel.
Along with Oscar Isaac, Dune’s ensemble cast includes Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Stellan Skarsgård, Josh Brolin, Dave Bautista, Jason Momoa, Zendaya, Javier Bardem and Charlotte Rampling. Along with Denis Villeneuve, the behind-the-scenes talent includes Greig Fraser as cinematographer and Hans Zimmer handling the score.
Keep checking in with CinemaBlend for more Dune updates in the months ahead, but for now, you can learn what other movies are supposed to come out later this year in our 2020 release schedule.
