Most of us agree that Denis Villeneuve made the impossible possible. No one thought Dune would become a popular, digestible entertainment. Along the way, he had a lot of obstacles, including one from a distant universe.
In a new piece by the Hollywood Reporter, Villeneuve joked that if you tried to do your own space opera today, you would be fucked by Star Wars. He is talking about how Star Wars has become so popular that any similar space opera, even ones that came along before Star Wars, will forever be compared to it. While making Dune, the director found himself in competition with another franchise.
In the same story, Villeneuve says that he and his designer spotted a group of black SUVs in the Wadi Rum desert of Jordan. The director had a dream about making Dune in this desert as a child. He knew that those SUVs were for another location scout.
The ninth Star Wars film was being worked on by Paul Inglis, who had worked with the Dune pair on Blade Runner 2049, so he shot him a text. Hey, man, a question. Do you live in Wadi Rum? "I said so." Inglis received the bad news. Was that the person who flew over us? It was called Star Wars.
The story has a happy ending. The Dune crew of Villeneuve and Vermette, as well as Inglis and the Star Wars crew, met at a hotel bar. We told them that we don't want to know anything about your story, but we need to make sure that we don't end up shooting the exact same areas of the desert. It was cool.
