Early Reactions to Denis Villeneuve’s Dune Describe It as “Phenomenal” – Compared to Lord of the Rings

Early Reactions to Denis Villeneuve’s Dune Describe It as “Phenomenal” – Compared to Lord of the Rings

Early reactions to Denis Villeneuve’s Dune describe the film as “phenomenal” and compared it to Lord of the Rings.

Dune fan news site, Dune 2020 News, shared the first reactions which came from Sci-Fi writer Brian Clement’s now deleted tweet.

Dune 2020 News details the first reactions, saying the “cast looks phenomenal in their costumes.”

They also add that “the sets are enormous; same scope as BR2049 and Arrival.”

The movie is also described as a “mix of grimy realism and dreamlike imagery.”

There’s been some promo footage of Denis Villeneuve’s DUNE shown to people already. Here’s a BUNCH of details on what they’ve saw: -Cast looks phenomenal in their costumes.

-The sets are ENORMOUS; same scope as BR2049 and ARRIVAL.

-Mix of grimy realism and dreamlike imagery. pic.twitter.com/YepgQRtEr2 — DUNE 2020 News (@DuneNews) January 17, 2020

They added, “Timothée Chalamet as Paul looks excellent. Rebecca Ferguson looks “eerie”. Dave Bautista looks like a “monster” as the Beast. Cinematography looks excellent.”

More details: -Timothée Chalamet as Paul looks excellent.

-Rebecca Ferguson looks “eerie”.

-Dave Bautista looks like a “monster” as the Beast.

-Cinematography looks excellent. — DUNE 2020 News (@DuneNews) January 17, 2020

In a number of deleted tweets Clement also stated that he didn’t see any Zendaya footage.

Clement wrote on Twitter, “We saw no Zendaya in the footage! That was a suprising omission. Maybe that’s even more super secret.”

It’s quite possible the reason Clement might not have seen Chani is that her role in the first film is not extremely significant. According to my source she will show towards the end of the film after Paul Ateides and his mother have fled into the desert and joined the Fremen.

When asked how Chalamet looked as Paul Atreides, Clement responded, “Believeable.”

In other deleted tweets Clement wrote, “As a follow-up re my opinion on new Dune based only on the footage I saw (since people are curious), I think this will blow people away the way LOTR did 20 years ago, the way Star Wars did 40 years ago. It’s not Jodorowsky or Lynch, but maybe Villeneuve has filmed the un-filmable.”

In a follow-up tweet he stated, “To be honest, it’s not exactly how I pictured the universe of Dune when I first read the book (it never will be) but that’s a good thing. I really like the look Villeneuve has created and I think it’s going to be spectacular.”

He added, “I’m not exaggerating when I say a lot of people will have goosebumps/tears when they see this movie (I might!). Heck, when they see the footage I saw they will.”

As for some of that footage, set photos recently leaked onto Reddit. You can see that below.

Clement continued with his initial reaction explaining that he believes the footage he saw featured the Harkonnens.

“Something else I’ll mention re: the Dune footage we were shown: there were wide shots of a group of people I at first thought were members of the Spacing Guild, but then Rabban was among them so I think they were Harkonnens because they all had similar costumes and makeup.”

Both Movieweb and Cosmic Book News also report that early reactions indicated that “the choice of actor for playing Kynes will be a surprise for audiences.”

We’ve previously reported that Liet Kynes will be gender-swapped with our source speculating that Kynes will be played by Sharon Duncan-Brewster. Although my source does indicate that role could be reverted back to a male with a number of films bombing at the box office in 2019 that featured race and gender swaps.

It’s possible this gender swap is what Clement was referring to when he described the choice as a “surprise.”

Dune hits theaters on December 18, 2020. The film stars Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides, Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica, Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho, Dave Bautisa as Beast Rabban, Oscar Isaac as Duke Leto Atreides, Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck, Stellan Skarsgård as Baron Harkonnen, Javier Bardem as Stilgar, Stephen McKinley Henderson as Thufir Hawat, Chen Chang as Dr. Wellington Yueh, and Zendaya as Chani.

What do you make of this initial reaction to Dune? What do you make of the leaked set photos? Are you looking forward to seeing Dune?

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