Congratulations on the film. Thank you.
I really, really enjoyed it.
I love I love the book as much as you do.
So I'm really, really glad that you got to make it.
I wanted to ask you, I know you obviously spoke about how Blade
Runner 2049 and Arrival
kind of helped you become confident enough to maybe take on Dune.
And I wondered what sort of skills or what what they gave you as a filmmaker.
I would say once you've done those two movies,
to think to yourself, maybe now is maybe the time
that I could at least think about maybe taking on Dune.
It's a it's definitely about movies.
Brought me a lot of knowledge about visual effects
and Blade Runner more specifically about world building. And
I learned so much.
And I will say I had done Blade Runner, a real masterclass
on how to bring visual effects to life with Roger Deakins.
I spent a year, an entire year with Roger
creating the visuals of Blade Runner
from scratch, from the artwork to the visual effects, the final product.
And for me, I learned everything there.
And I will say, frankly, that as I was doing myself,
the visual effects on Dune,
I was hearing Roger whispering in my ear
and remembering all these advices that
I will have never been able to do without all
what I've learned, not on movies.
And I always say that 90 percent of directing
is casting, and you've acquired a quite decent cast.
I'd say they're quite decent actors.
How excited were you when you got these people to be involved?
Because it says a lot about you
as a filmmaker and the project of Dune
and the story that so many people want to get involved.
And you were able to get Timothee [Chalamet] at the top of the top of the pile.
The thing is that I will say that no matter what people
think of the movie, I think that I didn't mess up
the casting.
I think that when you read the book and you see the cast on the screen,
the description of the characters in the book are very, very close to that.
Actors I had the chance to work with.
I mean, it's they really embody the spirit and the qualities of the characters.
And what was beautiful about doing this casting is that the book is beloved
in the acting community and that people were excited to come on board.
And I didn't have to convince nobody unless it was like really
beautiful journey to cast this movie. Very exciting.
And I wanted to ask you about the challenges of filming on IMAX,
because I know that, you know, obviously Christopher Nolan kind of
did a lot of stuff on Batman, and a lot of people have taken that on.
How did you find working in the IMAX format?
Did it did it change anything in terms of your your filmmaking? Yes.
I my first experience was with IMAX was on Blade Runner.
I remember we shot the movie in 2.35:1
but Roger always took the precaution
to make sure that the one point line will be safe for IMAX.
And I, I was impressed when we did the blow up
that the IMAX version of it
increased intimacy with the characters,
and that that announcement of intimacy really surprises me
because I thought it was an IMAX was all about scope and and.
Dune is a story of a young man, introspective journey
of a young man that discover
a new culture and make peace with part of his identity
as he's going deeper into a landscape, and that relationship of the the
the landscape with the psyche of the character,
I thought was IMAX was absolutely perfect to do the work.
I thought that to shoot at the desert
in a square format was definitely something that will help us
to bring something fresh to the screen and also that
bring some kind of verticality into the landscape of bringing this issue
to create some kind of vertigo
feeling with with the uh, to create that the impact of the landscape.
And again, and contrast with that intense intimacy.
I thought the IMAX was perfect for that.
But it it does require a different way
of framing and cutting a movie.
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for your time today.
I really appreciate it. And I look forward to part two, hopefully.
Fingers crossed.