Denis Villeneuve first Dune movie has its first (and hopefully final) release date: November 20, 2020.
The Oscar-nominated Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 director is putting together the ultimate star-studded cast for his adaptation of Frank Herbert's 1965 novel. Denis Villeneuve has plans for more than one movie, but the first one has to do well -- at least better than the 1984 movie, which only made about $31 million off a $40 million budget.
Dune will also open in IMAX and 3D on November 20, The Hollywood Reporter shared. It has every chance of being a visual masterpiece, considering the director and the material.
Dune is expected to start filming this spring, including locations in Jordan and Budapest. So far, the growing cast is reported to include Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides; Rebecca Ferguson as Jessica Atreides; Oscar Isaac as Duke Leto; Zendaya as Chani; Javier Bardem as Stilgar; Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck; Dave Bautista as Glossu Rabban; Stellan Skarsgård as Vladimir Harkonnen; Charlotte Rampling as Reverend Mother Mohiam; and Jason Momoa recently in talks to play Duncan Idaho.
Last year, Denis Villeneuve had said Dune would probably take two years to make, and his goal was to make two films, "maybe more."
Early last year, at the Cannes Film Festival, Denis Villeneuve gave an update on his plans for multiple movies:
Eric Roth wrote the first draft and I worked on my side afterward. I have not had such fun on the creative side since Incendies! My wish would have been to make both films at the same time but it will be too expensive. We will do them one at a time.
He also shared this interesting tease that his Dune would be "Star Wars for adults":
Most of the main ideas of Star Wars are coming from Dune so it's going to be a challenge to [tackle] this. The ambition is to do the Star Wars movie I never saw. In a way, it's Star Wars for adults. We'll see.
(Is Star Wars not already for adults? Never mind.)
Dune is just the latest movie to get a release date this week, closely following the rescheduled dates for Bond 25 and Fast and Furious 9.
At the moment, Dune may have November 20, 2020 to itself. Fantastic Beasts 3 was going to open that date, and so far Warner Bros. has yet to officially say anything, but with production moving back several months due to the movie being twice the size of the first two films, I'm thinking there's no way Fantastic Beasts 3 opens in 2020. Pencil it in for 2021.
As we wait to see who is next to join the amazing Dune cast, keep an eye on our 2019 movie release date schedule to what's coming to theaters this year.
