Dune Part 1 gave us our first look at the iconic sandworms of Arrakis, and Denis Villeneuve
portrayed them as godly creatures that are both beutiful and monstrous in their final
form, connecting to the very nature and central
themes of the story.
But if you've read Frank Herbert's novel, you'll know that Dune Part 2 will give us
an even bigger and better look at the sandworms, with them included in a very important
moment surrounding the journey of Paul Atreides and also in a final battle scene that in this
apatation, could be one of the most epic scenes in modern science fiction, if pulled
off right.
In this video, I'm going to be discussing how Denis Villeneuve and his team will go
about adapting the sandworm scenes in Dune Part
2, alongside some details surrounding the filming of these moments that the production's
crew have talked about following the release of part 1.
There will be spoilers from the back part of the original novel, so I would recommend
not watching this video if you are someone who hasn't fully read Frank Herbert's book
yet or if you don't want to know about big spoilers for
Dune Part 2.
But before I get into it, if you want to keep up to date on any of my content surrounding
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But without further a do, lets dive into the sandworms of Dune Part 2.
So the sandworm was argubaly one of the most iconic pieces of imagery from Denis Villeneuve's
first Dune film, and alongside the gradual reveals of how big the worms were, we also
learnt about how they are aware to specific, rhythmic
sounds, leading them tothat part of the Arrakis desert.
The sandworms are both looked at as terifying and god-like figures, that in
modern filmmaking, harkens back to Spielsberg's approach in Jaws.
During multiple moments of Dune, we further got a demonstration of how CGI should be used
to capture a creature of this magnitude, and the production crew put the
money and hard work into making every frame look tangible, even when considering what
was unfolding in the frame.
In a lot of modern blockbusters today, CGI is not just overused,
but misused, and that comes through less attention to lighting and creating flatter enironments
for the subjects appearing in frame.
Denis and his designers put a lot of work into filming
certain moments with sandscreens on location and then when it came to designing the visual
textures of things like the sandworms, they spent weeks creating and rendering the motion
of them.
Designs that were based on real-world creatures and inspired by their movement, to really
give the audience a sense that this is an authentic figure lurking below the sands.
It was exciting to slowly get the reveal of the sandworms and the effort and detail that
went into each moment had to be applauded with that
first attempt.
I would recommend watching the behind the scenes features on the 4k or reading about
this in the art and soul of Dune to really grasp a better sense of the things they
accomplished.
But while these scenes in part 1 were super impressive, Part 2 sets up even bigger tasks
for the teams working behind the project.
While Part 1's ending shows that the Fremen can ride sandworms, they also view
the creatures as spiritual symbols.
So if Part 2 is going to fully capture the sandworms in the second half of Herbert's
novel, then the meaningful teases of the original should be
showcases alongside Villeneuve's filmmaking and feel organic within the big moments that
they appear onscreen.
One of the reasons that they are more integral to the book, rather then
just being a deadly monster, is because the spice melange is produced by the worms’
reproductive process.
This wasn't explained in the first film and it's one of many details about the
worms that I'm sure will be addressed in the sequel.
Another is that the older and larger sandworms are important to the Fremen’s belief
system, with them being viewed as gods called Shai-Haluud.
Now while we did learn about this, what we haven't learned is that for a Fremen's rite
of passage, they would have to learn to ride and control a large sandworm.
Of course, at the end of Part 1, Paul has now chosen to join the Fremen and learn their
culture and ways, which further includes a relationship with
the sandworms too.
And one of the big scenes that we will likely see within the first half of the second film,
is Paul learning to ride one himself, leading later on to an ending battle
against the Harkonnens, with multiple Fremen riders bringing even more sandworms into war
with them too.
Starting with the scene where Paul learns to ride a sandworm, we can expect that this
is going to be one of the defining moments in the first half of the second film.
In the book, Paul meets with Stilgar, who gives him a thumper
to call the worm, and other Fremen members give him the maker hooks that we saw Liet
Kynes use in the first film to grab onto the worm’s side.
Paul activates the thumper, and in return, the huge worm makes its way toward him, with
Paul eventually making contact, and snaring one of the worms ring segments with the maker
hooks, so that its tissue will be exposed to the
sand and eventually rotate him to the top.
Returning production designer Patrice Vermette stated in an interview with Vulture, that
they continuously researched core points surrounding
the sandworms, so that they had this in mind when it comes to its designs and how it will
look onscreen.
Vermette said that they looked at “how it feeds, how it lives, how it survives,
and how it’s being ridden by the Fremen.
We thought about how the skin is made so you can climb on it.”
I'm guessing that they are once again going to use sandscreens in moments like this
to really capture the correct lighting and better composed subjects.
Making Timothee Chalemet's Paul Atreides riding a sandworm look
realistic, is going to be a feat to pull off, but again, I think this comes in the focus
on detail and putting the audiences focus on how this character manages to do this and
what it means to the fremen.
And that brings me to my next point.
They've got to primarily show how this moment affects both Paul and the Fremen as a whole.
How the Fremen now see him as a potential candidate to take over from Stilgar,
and then how this moment impacts what follows with Paul trying to unite the natives rather
then excel in their methods of hardship and killing.
Of course the end of the book and beyond this moment is the complete reverse, but in showing
how Paul gains his following and how this big moment in riding a sandworm advances
that perception, Villeneuve can really bring answers to part 1's questions in satisfying
ways.
From a thematic and storytelling perspective, the dream that Kynes offered the Fremen of
a lush green paradise, was the aim that unified
them.
But replacing this ideal is the dream of Paul Atreides as a savior.
Constrasting that with Paul's dreams which suggested that the
universe will be thrown a bloody jihad in result of his eventual building of warriors
that require a cause, makes the final destination even more fascinating.
We know that we are leading to this in Villeneuve's faithful adaptation
of the book, but again, in huge moments like with Paul riding a Sandworm and him and the
fremen fighting the sardaukar in the desert, we'd
really start to see that path unfold, and be shown meaningful imagery for the story.
Denis's visuals and moments of action traditionally show the core storytelling themes, and I expect
in a lot of the new moments with the fremen and
the sandworms, that we will get just that.
And coming to the final battle, this is going to be another moment that truly gives the
action purpose.
Denis Villeneuve said in an interview that he thinks that this will be one of the
most difficult sequences to shoot.
He said, “it involves sandworms and it's truly going to be one of the beautiful challenges
of my life.
And I know if I do it right, that will be the
scene.”
Of course by the time the battle comes, the fremen have gone from looking up at these
creatures as god-like symbols, to riding many of them at once into a war with the Harkonnens.
I think Villenueve is going to show the destruction from Paul and the Fremen's side with the sandworms
and capture the potential of that Jihad paul envisioned in a fully-realised way.
All in one journey we would have the destructive yet symbolic portrayal of the worms and this
is something that the director has always done strongly.
Typically, Villeneuve shows beauty and meaning in shots with heavy vfx and even
action, making us feel something with the scale he presents onscreen.
Whether it be the presence in the exterior and interior of the ships in
Arrival or the vibrant emptiness of the san fransisco shots in Blade Runner 2049.
Even the action filled moments capture some kind of tension or feeling from the protagonist
and audience about what is truly going on, like in that
Sicaario border scene or in the fight at the end of Blade Runner between K and Luv.
The messages underneath the surface if you will.
In a lot of blockbusters today, we see that action
is framed in a way for entertainment.
We rarely get the central story built upon in a unique way, or character struggles and
ideals delivered on to a satisfying degree.
But Denis knows that there's underlying discourse in that final battle on Arrakis, one that
involves revenge and the start of a bloody war, and not just one that
shows Paul and the Fremen leading to victory.
I think we're going to see the twisted nature of that as a reverse to the first film and
the visual power of the sandworms in that sequence
will act as a destructive tool to put that in motion.
And just imagine the way they'd have to capture this.
Well in speaking of that, there was recent news that the production team are
expanding their shooting to other Hungary locations, in addition to Origo Studios, with
up to 4 units working side by side.
Here's one of the stages being used, and it does make me think
that this could be for the battle, because they are going to need to do a bit of work
in studio to pull something as big as that off.
We know that Denis will go the extra mile to capture
these sandworm scenes on location when it comes to the background of the shots, but
composing images of Paul and the fremen riding them is something that leads to more studio
work too.
Again this will likely look great with the combination of sandscreens too.
As I've touched on just some of the work that needs to be done to pull off these huge sandworm
scenes, the further comments of the Dune production team share much more light on that
process too.
Patrice Vermette and sound designers Mark Mangini and Theo Green are apaprently already
working on the Sandworms next design phase for Part 2.
For one, they mentioned that the connection to the spice and the sandtrouts
would be a big part going forward and they also stated that Paul's spice visions originally
included images that show the worms’ entire life cycle and how they function.
Theo Green said, “It was something that was only ever in the storyboard phase and
not developed further, but we did create a few sounds for it.
We had Paul seeing the sandtrout and came up with
a very strange sound, like a heartbeat, like a watery heartbeat.
That could be tapped into for Part Two.”
Patrice Vermette also spoke on the sandworms’ designs, saying, “we designed
the worm while thinking of how it would grow, because we know there are different sizes
in the book” And the sound designers also teased that they
have a lot of stored recordings from the desert and underneath sand dunes to give them notes
on everything a worm might need to do.
It's this level of attention to detail that depicts
exactly how Villeneuve and co are methodically building this universe with all the integral
elements, characters and their designs.
The Sandworms are one of those elements, serving as a
motif for the religion and power of the Dune story, but also a part that is used by Paul
and the fremen to take back Arrakis.
Denis is a master at capturing iconic imagery and poetic
action that I imagine will look outstanding in relation to some of the scenes we will
get with the sandworms in part 2.
We'll have to wait and see, but I think the sandworms of Dune Part
2 are going to carry more weight in the visual universe of Denis Villeneuve's Dune, just
like they did in Frank Herbert's iconic novel all those years ago.
But that was my video discussing the potential of the sandworm scenes in Dune Part 2.
It's going to be interesting to see how these iconic moments will be adapted to the big
screen by Denis Villeneuve and his team, and I'm expecting
the grandest of scale and moments depicted with impactful meaning, that will hopefully
translate even better to screen than what we got
in part 1.
Like I said, Denis is a master at adapting powerful, beautiful and monstrous images within
his films, and like was seen before, we can expect the Dune cast and crew to go to
the extra mile in making the sandworm scenes feel as authetic as possible.
But let me know down below in the comments section whether you're excited to see how
they will bring the sandworm scenes to life in Dune Part 2.
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