2023 is giving us a lot of exciting blockbuster and smaller film releases, whether it be franchise
fair or auteur driven filmmaking. And while I'm super excited about films like Mission
Impossible 7, Martin Scorsese's Killers of The Flower Moon, David Fincher's The Killer
or even John Wick 4, there are two films that have been at the top of my most anticipated list for
quite a while. And that is noneother than Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer
and Denis Villeneuve's Dune Part 2. In this video, I'm going to be
discussing why Dune Part 2 and Oppenheimer are my most anticipated and what particularly
excites me for both filmmakers latest big screen projects. Before I get into though, if you want
to keep up to date on any of my content this year surrounding Christopher Nolan's
Oppenheimer and Denis Villeneuve's Dune Part 2, then don't forget to support this video by giving
it a like rating, subscribing to the channel and turning on your notifications. But without
further a do, lets dive into why I'm excited for Dune Part 2 and Oppenheimer.
So with us now hitting 2023, I thought I'd base my first video of the year on two upcoming films
by my two favourite filmmakers working today. Both Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve
have a long history of making both commercially and artistically successfully films, pushing
the limits of filmmaking in multiple genres to new levels with their directorial styles and
narrative motifs in tact. And after some great films in 2022, particularly from auteur driven
blockbuster fare with Jo Kosinski's Top Gun Maverick, Matt Reeves The Batman and James
Cameron's Avatar: The Way Of Water, there's a growing sense that filmmakers who work on the
biggest stage can craft films that push filmmaking in exciting new directions, both from a
stortelling perspective and a practical filmmaking one too. Lead that into 2023 with both Nolan and
Villeneuve's upcoming films, and I'm hoping that with Dune Part 2 and Oppenheimer, we
can see two incredible features by directors at the top of their game.
Starting with Oppenheimer, I know that Nolan's film isn't necessarily a blockbuster and it's
more of a biopic, but Nolan consistently knows how to combine a movie of a large scale with
another genre in every filmmaking instalment. And with Oppenheimer being described by the
filmmaker as a film with a big scale, I think we can expect another blend of genres in
traditional Nolan fashion. While Tenet wasn't everyone's cup of tea, for me personally,
it was a film that provided extra narrative and filmmaking intrigue through multiple watches.
Every rewatch of Tenet provided a new focus for me, and I think it can't be denied that Nolan's
filmmaking ability hasn't gone down. Oppenheimer, while apparently keeping a large scale,
is a biopic centred around the man who developed the atomic bomb, also known for being apart of
the manhattan project, focussing on his life during the development of it and then also
afterwards with all of the trials and political problems that followed. It provides more of a
character canvas for Nolan to tell a deeply emotional and powerful story, getting into the
mind of Oppenheimer, which of course included all the intelligence, but then also all the
guilthe faced after the nuclear bomb was tested and eventually used. The source material which
the film is based on, known as 'American Prometheus' was a pulliter prize winning
novel that detailed J. Robert Oppenheimer's life and career, providing all the material for the
filmmaker to focus on. He's shown that he can do original stories and present them on an unpreceded
scale in IMAX film, he's also shown that he can adapt iconic comic material into one
of the greatest superhero trilogies of all time, and he further displayed that he can pull off a
remake successfully. So the fact that we now get to see his adaptation of a novel, is as
intriguing as any Nolan picture from the outset. What's transcends this above just being another
anticipated Nolan film though, is that the filmmaker is working with possibly the most
stacked cast and crew in years. Which is something that I guess you could also apply
to Dune and it's sequels. On Oppenheimer, we have frequent Nolan collaborator, Cillian Murphy,
getting his first lead role in a Nolan picture, then we have the likes of Emily Blunt
Playing his wife, Robert Downey Jr playing the antagonistic role in court, Matt Damon, Florence
Pugh, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branaugh, Gary Oldman, and two many others to count. Nolan
is further re-teaming with cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema to push stunning new IMAX Black and
White photography, and he's also working again with composer Ludwig
Gorannson and editor Jennifer Lame, after their collaborations on Tenet.
The known cast and crew are all names that are established in their individual fields and you
can bet on plenty of Oscar nominations if those first trailers are anything to go on. For me,
the excitement for Oppenheimer stems around Nolan returning to a more character
driven film, and one that coupled with it's impressive filmmaking, can hopefully bring the
story of Oppenheimer to life in a detailed and moving way. In my opinion, the best Nolan films
focus on grief, personal identity, morality, time and the subjective experience, and the
story of Oppenheimer ticks all of those boxes. I'm particularly excited to see how Cillian
Murphy's performance highlights both the desperation yet the eventual grief
that builds within Oppenheimer after that known trinity test.
Nolan's thematic work is also probabaly the best in large scale blockbuster filmmaking and
I can't think of a more immersive and intricate filmmaker to tell this story better. Already
in that first full length trailer and the IMAX version in front of Avatar 2, we got
a sense of the immersive visuals of a nuclear reaction, the colour footage that involved
the developing of the atomic bomb and the black and white IMAX photography, that looks to be
focussing on all the political trials that followed. And knowing Nolan he'll probabay
interweave this all together in a complex way that only Oppenheimer can understand. We'll
have to see if it lives up to all the hype, but right now, I think this has the potential to be
a top tier Chritopher Nolan film in nearly every aspect.
And this now brings me to Denis Villeneuve's Dune Part 2. After already having two great
blockbuster sequels in 2022 with Top Gun maverick and The Way Of Water, Part 2 of Dune has the
potential to be even greater following the success and artistic quality of Part 1 for the science
fiction genre. Denis Villeneuve himself, is probabaly the greatest living artistic
aeteur in large scale filmmaking, with a streak of films that's quite unheard of. Now I wouldn't
consisder him a blockbuster filmmaker in the way that say a Christopher Nolan or James
Cameron is, because he tends to lean more towards the artistic. But in Arrival, Blade
Runner 2049 and Dune Part 1, we got a growing sense that Villeneuve could really blend his
directorial style with blockbuster traits too. And if you've read Dune, you'll know that the
second half of Frank Herbert's novel promises it all. Large scale clashes, brain-melting
revealations, heady sci-fi concepts, and dark familial developments that could make this the
empire strikes back of the modern Dune adaptation. The world of Arrakis is already expanding
with multiple TV spinoffs on the way, including the HBO show, Dune:
The Sisterhood, which is currently in production, and a previously mentioned
third film in the Dune saga, focussed on Herbert's second book Dune Messiah. While we
haven't seen any footage from Dune Part 2, the cast and the filmmaker have promised big things
from the sequel, and if Part 1 is only the beginning, then we can expect an even more
impressive science fiction feat from the filmmaker. Part 1 was the pinnacle of immersive
sci fi storytelling on the big screen, giving us transportive visual scenes that told the sweeping
plot of a family travelling to Arrakis and being backstabbed by the ever revealing Harkonens.
Dune Part 2 will dive deeper into the powers of Paul Atreides, the fremen and
the Harkonens, bringing this all together in an explosive, yet meaningful way too. And with cast
additions of Austin Butler as the villainous Feyd Rautha, Christopher Walken as the Emperor,
and Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan, huge talent has been added to an already stacked cast. Part
1 won 6 academy awards and was success at the box office, even in the wake of the
awful HBO Max decision, and after it being one of the most rewatched films in the last year,
you can expect Dune Part 2 to have a much wider audience come this November. Now of course,
I can't wait to see how Denis captures large scale sequences such as the final battle, but I'm
particularly intrigued to see how he will adapt important moments from the book like the water of
life scene or the sequence where Paul learns to ride a sandworm, in a way that is visually
impressive yet realistic, like he was able to accomplish with part 1. The difficulty of
pulling some of this off is through the roof, but if anyone can do it it's Denis Villeneuve,
the filmmaker who spent a year with his team in making sure the sandworms of arrakis would be as
detailed as they were in the final product. Dune is the artistic blockbuster done right
and I expect part 2 to be more than just your average sequel. So hopefully he delivers and
sets up an expansive Dune universe that can be approached in even more films and shows by other
quality storytellers and filmmakers in the years to come.
Overall, 2023 marks the exciting return of Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve. These
are two directors who really take the time to bring stories and their filmmaking styles to the
big screen in both familiar and new ways too. You know when you're watching a Nolan or
Villeneuve film, because their aeteur style leaks through every frame visually, narratively or
thematically. And with Oppenheimer and Dune Part 2, I think we could be getting both of
them at their absolute best. Oppenheimer provides Nolan with a story that is so well connected
to his filmmaking vision. A personal story that is complex, full of grief and infused with an
accerating race against time. Oppenheimer had to build this bomb to end the war but once
he built it and it was used, he realised the death, destruction and foreshadowing he would
bring along with that creation. It's another troubled cristopher Nolan protagonist and one
that brings us back to the days of Memento, Insomnia, The Prestige and Inception, alongside
a likely complex narrative structure that takes place in different periods of time. It
resembles a Nolan picture to it's core and presents an opportunity
for a telling about Oppenheimer that is one part, revealing, and another part,
a warning. And then with Dune Part 2, Denis Villeneuve has the opportunity to show the
full extent of what his large scale filmmaking career has led to, which based on the second
part of the Dune story, could be a perfect amalgamation of well-though out blockbuster
filmmaking alongside nuanced character work all at the same time. We get to witness the end of
the Dune story, but the begining of a much darker sci-fi one on the big screen. It's
the anti star wars, and I think after so many retreads of that blockbuster formula before, and
heck even Star Wars was inspired by the original Dune novel, I can see part 2 being a staple sequel
film that is quite different to what has come in the past. Add on that Villeneuve and Nolan
bring all of this to life in impressive ways using IMAX photography and practical
filmmaking techniques, and we can expect two visual treats that
push large scale filmmaking forwards in interesting new ways. Yes, Oppenheimer
and Dune Part 2 are two very different films in different genres, but both the filmmakers
behind them understand the medium that they are creatively apart of and there's a reason why
both of them have continued to grow or sustain their growth in the last 10-20 years. They know
how to connect to audience and bring films that relate on a deeply personal level, even if
they are set within a universe that has sandworms or amongst scientists in a remote facility
developing a weapon that could destroy everyone else. There's an immense care put into a
Nolan or Villeneuve picture and you always take something away from the filmmaking, even if the
story isn't to your personal liking. We need more care put into big budget storytelling
after witnessing so many films that appear and feel very similar to what's come before. I think
the success of The Batman, Top Gun Maverick and Avatar: The Way Of Water showed that in
2022, as films that creatively, the filmmakers and teams behind them spent years to craft in
individually impressive ways. And hopefully both Oppenheimer and Dune Part 2 can continue
this trend in 2023. For all we know, Dune and Oppenheimer might turn out to
be missed opportunities, but knowing Nolan and Villeneuve, I'm hopeful that they will be as
impressive as we expect.
But that was my video discussing my excitement for Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer and Denis
Villeneuve's Dune Part 2. We'll have to see if both films deliver later on in the year, but
in just discussing about why I'm excited for each of them, I for one, can't believe that we are
going to be getting a new Nolan and Villeneuve film releasing in the same calender year.
Not just that, but two projects that from what we know, are both filmmaker's biggest passion
projects ever brought to screen. Who knows we could eventually be looking at a Nolan and
Villeneuve oscar race if both films do turn out to be great, and wouldn't that be interesting
come award season in 2023. I will be covering both films in many videos throughout 2023 on
the channel, including a road to series for both, like previously seen with Tenet and Dune
Part 1. I just can't wait until we all finally get a chance to see what both directors have
been working on and hopefully they'll be as good as we hope. But what are your excitement
levels currently at surrounding both Oppenheimer and Dune Part 2, and are both films on your
most anticipated list for 2023. Let me know down below in the comments section.
For much more videos and news on Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer and Denis Villeneuve's
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always make some noise.