Background Following the publication of
Frank Herbert's novel
Dune in 1965, it was considered to have potential for a possible film adaptation. Since 1971, various producers have held film adaptation rights for the novel. Attempts to make an adaptation based on the book were considered to be "
unfilmable" due to its breadth of content. The book's status among fans meant that deviations without strong justification could potentially harm the film's reputation.
Alejandro Jodorowsky acquired the rights in the 1970s to make a fourteen-hour adaptation of the book, but the project ultimately failed to secure sufficient funds. This development effort became the subject of the documentary film ''
Jodorowsky's Dune'' (2013).
David Lynch's
Dune, produced by
Raffaella De Laurentiis in 1984, was intended as a three-hour film but was cut to 137 minutes; it was poorly received and Lynch himself ended up disowning it. In 1996, producer
Richard P. Rubinstein acquired the rights to the novel. ''
Frank Herbert's Dune'', a live-action miniseries produced by Rubinstein and directed by
John Harrison, aired on the
Sci Fi Channel in 2000; it was a ratings hit and was generally better received than Lynch's film. Some reviewers criticized the miniseries for lacking the spectacle afforded to a feature film production, as well as for staying too faithful to the book and being bogged down by
exposition. Prospects to make a successful adaptation of
Dune improved after the critical and commercial success of the film series adaptations of
The Lord of the Rings and
Harry Potter, both of which maintained most of the works' key characters and plots while managing the limited running time. Berg left the project in October 2009, with director
Pierre Morel being hired in January 2010. Paramount later cancelled the project in March 2011, as they could not come to key agreements, with their rights reverting to Rubinstein.
Development said that adapting
Dune was a lifelong ambition. He was hired to direct in February 2017. In 2011,
Mary Parent, vice chair of worldwide production for
Legendary Pictures, and her producer partner
Cale Boyter, acquired adaptation rights for
Dune. Canadian filmmaker
Denis Villeneuve expressed interest in the project in September 2016, saying that "a longstanding dream of mine is to adapt
Dune, but it's a long process to get the rights, and I don't think I will succeed". By December, Villeneuve was in talks with the studio to direct the film. His enthusiasm to direct a
Dune film earned Parent's respect, with Parent hiring Villeneuve after hearing him describe his vision for the film. He chose to complete
Arrival (2016) and
Blade Runner 2049 (2017) first, as he wanted to spend more time to develop
Dune and co-write it himself, employing his past experience directing
science fiction films during development. Villeneuve signed on to direct the film by January 2017, approximately one week after being nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Director for
Arrival. By that February, Villeneuve was officially confirmed as the director. Some of Villeneuve's previous collaborators on
Arrival and
Blade Runner 2049 returned for
Dune, including film editor
Joe Walker, production designer
Patrice Vermette, visual effects supervisor
Paul Lambert, sound designer and editor
Theo Green, sound editor
Mark Mangini, and special effects supervisor Gerd Nefzer. Other previous collaborators were slated to work on
Dune but dropped out before production began, including visual effects supervisor
John Nelson and cinematographer
Roger Deakins, who was replaced in December 2018 with
Greig Fraser.
Dune was produced by Villeneuve, Parent, and Cale Boyter, with Tanya Lapointe, Brian Herbert, Byron Merritt, Kim Herbert,
Thomas Tull, Jon Spaihts, Richard P. Rubinstein, John Harrison, and Herbert W. Gain serving as executive producers and
Kevin J. Anderson as creative consultant.
Writing In March 2018, Villeneuve stated that his goal was to adapt the novel into a two-part film series. He secured a two-movie deal with Warner Bros. Pictures, in the same style as the two-part adaptation of
Stephen King's
It in
2017 and in
2019. He chose to make two films as he felt that the novel was too large and complex for one. Subsequent dealings secured the production of the first film and new production deals were made to start production for the second.
Eric Roth was hired to co-write the screenplay in April, with Legendary CEO Joshua Grode affirming that the studio planned on making a sequel. Roth, who had read the book as a child, had a neutral opinion of it, which allowed him to have an "objective view of it". He wrote a 50-page treatment for the film and focused on appealing to groups of people who enjoyed the book, did not remember nor care for the book, and those who were not familiar with it at all. Villeneuve completed a first draft of the script by May 2018, Producer Brian Herbert stated that the fourth draft of the screenplay, submitted in July, would cover the first half of the events from the novel, while
Jon Spaihts was later hired as co-writer alongside Roth and Villeneuve in September. Though the book features many elements inspired from Arab and Islamic culture, Spaihts stated the team minimized incorporating them as he felt Arab culture became integrated into the world, resulting in the need to "invent more and borrow less" due to potentially overemphasizing them. Eventually, Roth worked on the film again after completing his work on
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), providing feedback after a screening of the film and aiding in rewrites prior to reshoots. He described his reaction to the film as being "half-satisfied", and felt he would make the film with a "different sensibility". Similarly, he chose not to incorporate concepts Jodorowsky envisioned for his
Dune film, as he felt it would be "very presumptuous and arrogant". He was not intimidated by previous film adaptations as he felt his love for
Dune allowed him to focus on his own vision. He compared his experience of making the film to archaeology, describing the process as "going back in time and finding those images mixed with emotions, and bringing them back to life". He adjusted and modified many parts of the novel for the film, and wanted to keep "the atmosphere and poetry ... intact". This included eliminating internal monologues and epigraphs used in the book and simplifying the "pseudo-antiquated" dialogue. For Paul, Villeneuve desired an actor who had "an old soul in the body of a teenager". He identified
Timothée Chalamet as the ideal choice for the role, later admitting that he had no alternate choices in mind. Chalamet, who previously auditioned for a role in Villeneuve's
Prisoners (2013), Chalamet entered final negotiations to play the role of Paul in July 2018.
Rebecca Ferguson entered negotiations that September to play the role of Paul's mother,
Lady Jessica, with Chalamet already confirmed for the role of Paul. However, she was convinced after hearing Villeneuve's ideas and reading the book, saying she enjoyed the "simplicity of wanting to save something you have created and all of these shades". She had been cast by January 2019. Casting director Francine Maisler had compiled over 30–50 audition tapes from actors for Villeneuve to decide from when casting secondary roles.
Dave Bautista was offered the role of
Glossu Rabban following a phone call from Villeneuve. He was an avid fan of Villeneuve and wanted to contact him, but was surprised when Villeneuve contacted him first and says he is proud of being offered the role. Villeneuve wanted
Stellan Skarsgård to portray
Baron Vladimir Harkonnen as he had found Skarsgård intimidating, and personally contacted
Charlotte Rampling in order to portray
Gaius Helen Mohiam, who accepted as she enjoyed Villeneuve's work.
Oscar Isaac contacted Villeneuve about starring in the film once he heard it was in development. Villeneuve cast him as
Duke Leto, with Isaac commenting the role suited him physically.
Zendaya auditioned for the role of
Chani alongside five other actresses. She was chosen as she was considered to have the best performance with Chalamet. Bautista, Skarsgård, Rampling, Isaac, and Zendaya all joined the cast in January 2019. In the next month,
Javier Bardem,
Josh Brolin,
Jason Momoa, and
David Dastmalchian were cast as
Stilgar,
Gurney Halleck,
Duncan Idaho, and
Piter de Vries, respectively. Villeneuve directly called Bardem and offered him the role, who was shocked as he wanted to portray Stilgar, comparing it to his personal love for Aragorn in
The Lord of the Rings. Meanwhile, Brolin amusingly commented that he pretended to read the script prior to accepting the role, while Momoa received his casting call when he was snowboarding down a mountain. He later contacted Villeneuve on a
Skype call to confirm his involvement.
Stephen McKinley Henderson joined in March, with
Chang Chen entering negotiations. Maisler chose Henderson after admiring his work in New York theaters, and curated a list of the "most talented" Chinese actors for the role of Dr. Yueh. Despite initial difficulties contacting Chen, they eventually contacted his manager in China. Afterwards, Chen accepted his role as Dr. Yueh. The decision to cast
Benjamin Clementine as the Herald of the Change occurred after Maisler enjoyed his performance in the
Tiny Desk Concerts. Vermette based the set design for
Dune by the need "to ground the story into realistic settings to help the audience believe in the extraordinary elements". He sought to make the sets as realistic and immersive as possible, using minimal set extensions and no greenscreens. Prior to the creation of any sets or visual effects, Villeneuve and a group of specific people, worked together to define the visual language for the film. Many practical sets were created on the soundstages and backlots of the Origo Film Studios in
Budapest, Hungary, serving as interiors for the three planets. When designing Caladan, Vermette sought to give the planet "a feeling of
melancholia". He wanted Caladan to resemble
autumn in
Canada, his home country, as he thought that it represented "the end of a cycle... or the beginning of a new one". He identified "dramatic coastal mountain ranges" and forests containing
Norwegian pines as defining features of the planet. The original design for the
sandworm was deemed "prehistoric", inspired by whales with
baleen in their mouths. The design for Arrakeen was influenced by the book's description of Arrakis's climate, with Vermette calling it "the biggest residency ever built by humankind" and "a response as a colonial entity that took over the planet for the exploitation of ... spice". He designed the city in a "rock bowl" shape to protect its infrastructure from sandworms, and built buildings at an angle to protect them from high wind speeds. The walls were thickened to make the interiors cooler. The team was inspired by WWII bunkers,
Mayan temples, and Brazilian modernism. The history and culture of the Fremen was depicted in various
murals throughout the residence, with Vermette comparing it to that of a church after envisioning Fremen artists doing so in order to depict the colonization of Arrakis. West performed "psychological studies" of characters and historical research to associate their houses with historical "symbolic analogs", facilitating her costume design process. She took primary inspiration from the
Middle Ages, particularly envisioning what it would look like in the future. She associated the Fremen with the
French Resistance and the Sardaukar with the
Nazis when designing the costumes. Additionally, she took inspiration from
Giotto,
Francisco Goya,
Caravaggio, and British art historian
John Berger, while emulating styles from the fashion of
Balenciaga, the
Bedouin, and
Tuareg people. West associated the Spacing Guild with the
Avignon Papacy, connected their persecution of the
Templars to that of House Atreides; she noted that the Emperor and his allies betrayed House Atreides. Reference pictures consisted of medieval popes and modernized it when designing their costumes. Meanwhile, the Atreides' costumes were based on the
Romanovs, describing their costumes as having a "simplicity ... that was regal". Lady Jessica's dresses in the first half of the film were inspired by the works of
Cristóbal Balenciaga, while the turmeric-toned gown she wears while landing on Arrakis was influenced by Middle Eastern clothing and paintings of women in North Africa. The film was shot for the
IMAX format with an IMAX-certified
Arri Alexa LF camera and an IMAX-certified
Alexa Mini LF prototype, equipped with
Panavision's large-format lenses in the Ultra Vista and H-series lineup. Select scenes had aspect ratios opened up to 1.90:1 on all IMAX screens, and to 1.43:1 on select IMAX screens outfitted with IMAX's dual-laser projection system. The finished footage was transferred to 35mm film stock, then scanned back to 4K, in order to achieve a more film-like look. Filming occurred in
Wadi Rum, Jordan, which doubled for Arrakis. The
Liwa Oasis in the
United Arab Emirates also served as a key backdrop for Arrakis, with filming there occurring across 11 days. Local businesses, freelancers from
Twofour54, and crews consisting of over 100 people offered assistance during the shoot. Scenes featuring the rock formations functioning as the Fremens' heat shelters were filmed at the
Rub' al Khali desert.
Stadlandet, Norway doubled for the planet Caladan. Filming
wrapped on July 26, 2019. Additional filming took place in Budapest by August 2020, which did not alter the film's then-December 2020 release date. Parts of the Arrakeen invasion, such as shots of Gurney, extras, and practical explosions up to approximately five kilometers high, were filmed on
backlots in Budapest. Duke Leto's death scene was the final scene filmed by Isaac, in which he decided to film it nude as he felt it was similar to Christ's crucifixion. He also came up with the idea of including the bull's head, identifying it as an "omen". Ornithopter interiors were filmed on hilltops outside Budapest, with a 25-foot high and 360° sand-colored ramp circling a large
gimbal, allowing Fraser to film with natural sunlight. Chalamet learned the sandwalking technique, designed by choreographer
Benjamin Millepied, prior to filming Arrakis scenes in order to convey Paul's natural adeptness at it and "responsibility to show Jessica in that moment". Footage of helicopters flying over the UAE were filmed with six high-resolution cameras, being used as reference footage for ornithopters.
Visual effects and design processes. Visual effects supervisor Paul Lambert used "sandscreens" for filming scenes in Arrakis and Arrakeen; instead of using
green-based backgrounds, the visual effects team used sand-colored ones that matched the establishing desert shots intended for backgrounds. The sandscreens were used in capturing scenes of the ornithopter, with the VFX team using the helicopter footage and replacing them with the ornithopter models, facilitating capture of sand displacement. This was also filmed by encapsulating ornithopter models in black boxes with fans blowing dust. The wings were inserted using
computer-generated imagery (CGI). Similar processes were used to film scenes in other settings, as it facilitated compositing the foreground and background imagery: Caladan scenes used "grayscreens" and those with a "slight blue tint" for interior and exterior scenes, respectively, Salusa Secundus scenes used bluescreens. Approximately 18 tons of sand and dust were used on set, with the effect of blowing sand being created by using a
V8 engine with a fan on the back of a tractor. The sandworms were created through CGI. The VFX team found a lot of difficulty in deciding how the sandworm would move. The team spent over a year in figuring out the movements of the sandworm, and researched the body movements of various animals, such as worms and snakes. The sand ripples created by the worms were inspired by implicit visual cues of the shark from
Jaws (1975). The special-effects supervisor
Gerd Nefzer designed a vibrating 8x8 foot steel plate and placed it under the sand. This resulted in the formation of various patterns, used to signify an approaching sandworm. The vibrating areas were also later enhanced to cover a larger area. The team initially considered using rigged explosives to capture the motion of the sandworms breaking the surface in the desert, but rejected the idea as this was impractical to perform in the Middle East. Instead, they used the
Houdini software to have sand emulate the motion of water. Villeneuve did not want the associated sound design to appear as a studio production. Sound designers Mark Mangini and Theo Green used a "fake documentary realism" approach to capture natural sounds and manipulate them for use in the film, such as recording the sounds of shifting sands in
Death Valley using
hydrophones. The
creosote bush hologram was created by projecting different "slices" of light on Chalamet's face during plate photography based on his filming location using a
projector. Wylie then completed the scene by adding the hologram around him. For the hunter-seeker, a stick on set was used as reference, being later replaced with proper models via CGI. Practical rigs were attached to Skarsgård's body to create the effect of the Baron's levitation. The levitation was occasionally done practically with a seesaw rig. However, the suspensor device attached to his back was inserted using CGI. == Music ==