‘Dune 2’ Director Denis Villeneuve Says Epic Sandworm-Riding Scene Took ‘Sometimes a Week for One Shot’ and Required a Separate Unit: ‘If I Had Done It Myself, I Would Still Be Shooting’

Celebrated director Denis Villeneuve reflected on some of his favorite moments from his films during a career-spanning Screen Talk at the BFI London Film Festival on Saturday.

In conversation with “Ted Lasso” star Brett Goldstein, who guaranteed lots of laughs in the hour-long discussion, Villeneuve broke down “Dune: Part Two’s” epic sandworm-riding scene. Villeneuve has previously said that the sequence took 44 days to film, and required a separate crew called the “worm unit.”

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“I realized that, the way I wanted to approach this, I didn’t want to compromise,” Villeneuve said. “Most important with visual effects is, how will you shoot it? And I wanted to shoot it with natural light. And I realized it would take months to shoot it. Each shot was very complex. Each shot took sometimes half a day, sometimes a day, sometimes a week for one shot because of the complexity. If I had done it myself, I would still be shooting.”

The worm unit was led by Tanya Lapointe, someone who “understood perfectly my vision,” Villeneuve said, adding: “She’s my wife, also.”

Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two,” starring Timothée Chalamet as hero Paul Atreides, premiered in March to rave reviews and earned a whopping $714 million at the worldwide box office. In April, it was confirmed that a third “Dune” film is in development and will be based on Frank Herbert’s “Dune Messiah,” which is set 12 years after the events of his first novel. However, Villeneuve has been clear that the franchise is “not like a trilogy,” as he said on Vanity Fair’s “Little Gold Men” podcast last month.

“First, it’s important that people understand that for me, it was really a diptych,” Villeneuve said of the first two “Dune” movies. “It was really a pair of movies that will be the adaptation of the first book. That’s done and that’s finished. If I do a third one, which is in the writing process, it’s not like a trilogy. It’s strange to say that, but if I go back there, it’s to do something that feels different and has its own identity.”

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