Let's dive deeper into the world of Dune into the adaptation of Frank Herbert's
1965 novel. How did you end up helming the
feature film and what did you think about the pressure
and challenge that come with this project?
The thing is that I read Dune when I was like maybe
13 or 14 years old it's a book frankly that I came in contact
with the book by coincidence. I remember the first time
I saw the cover in the library at the time I was a
teenager that deeply loved reading books, I was reading a lot
and I was always looking for new material
and at the time I was starting to I was very good in science and I was
starting to be more and more curious and more and more amazed by
by science fiction. Dune is a very very rich book so when
having had that kind of sensibility I saw that
very beautiful book cover about a man with blue eyes, I still
have the book it's the original book and
I remember that I was, its something about book covers and
I remember reading the back of the book and it really
strike me and I dive into the book and I devoured I mean
I was like - I read all the books of Dune, it's a saga
there are several books, and the world, the complexity, the beauty
the richness of the cultures the way it was described
the adventure of a boy
leaving his world and having to
adapt himself to a new reality having to
to adapt itself to a new culture, to have the humility to to embrace that new
culture and to see the value and to survive to those environments
I thought was very moving at the time and
there was also a for a young boy I was like I started what they were
the book was saying about politics, about the economy,
the world are...
dealing with natural resources, exploitation of natural
resources, destroying the environment, and for me it's a very
complex powerful book that tells a universal
story that is very strong, simple and that approach very
complex subjects that matter in the same time so honestly because my favorite
book at the time. I deeply loved it, I was like totally
I felt in love, and it stayed with me through the
years and it stayed like a kind of something
an old dream, I was saying to myself one day I would love to bring this to
the screen. As I started and at the time of course I
started, I became, I started to make movies and I
was making movies in Canada with smaller budgets
science fiction was out of reach but when I
landed in Hollywood and I started to make movies with
bigger budgets and people kept asking me what will you be
your top dream project, what what would you
love to do, and I kept saying I would love to do science fiction
and the book my goal was would be to make Dune and
by chance Mary Parent and Cale Boyter from Legendary
got the rights and they as soon as they got the rights they
they gave me a phone call, it was probably the shortest meeting I had ever
had in my life, and we just said should we make Dune
together and the answer was yes let's do it.
It's like I felt at the beginning that we had to share the same sensibility
about the the book and what the story should be and
it was a from the start it was like a I would say a very close relationship
and a collaboration about this project that
has been the biggest challenge in my life.