Timothee Chalamet talks Dune, praises director Denis Villeneuve

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

In the short span of a year, actor Timothée Chalamet has made the internet as a whole swoon with his work in movies like LADY BIRD and CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, earning an Oscar nomination for his work in the latter. Now he’s going big-budget with the new DUNE adaptation from director Denis Villeneuve, and the young star recently sat down to talk about how excited he is to work with the filmmaker and about how he believes we will witness something special.

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Chalamet was sitting down with The Playlist to talk about his new movie BEAUTIFUL BOY (for which he is getting more Oscar buzz) when he was asked about DUNE. Much of his passion for the project stems from getting to work with the Oscar-nominated director of ARRIVAL and BLADE RUNNER 2049, who he admires for his ability to move between small films and big budget projects.

“Denis is one of my favorite filmmakers. What’s especially inspiring about Denis films are the size of them. They reach a big audience. These are films meant to play in front of big crowds. And, conversely, he’s also made movies like ‘Incendies’ that are like intimate affairs. So, that would be a dream come true and is going to be a dream come true. And, I’m chomping at the bits for that experience. I can’t wait.”

The actor revealed to the Phillippine Daily Inquirer that he found out Villeneuve was going to direct the movie last year. He knew right then he wanted the gig but was still eager to play it cool when he actually met Villeneuve at the Hollywood Film Awards, so instead of bringing up the movie he simply said, "Hi."

The two finally got to have a meeting at Cannes this year after Villeneuve got a chance to see CMBYN and BEAUTIFUL BOY (someone sent him a link to watch it). The director thought he was great and offered him the lead role of Paul Atreides, which Chalamet didn’t hesitate to accept. The actor is confident in Villeneuve's talent and believes he will do justice to the book by Frank Herbert and the original adaptation from David Lynch. 

“I have read the script and the book and I am so grateful that it’s a big movie and yet, there’s a real arc to this character. My enthusiasm for the David Lynch version is through the roof. And I got an impression that Denis shares my opinion, too. So working on ‘Dune’ is like a dream come true…I don’t think the film version will suffer from green screen-isms or something, like it’s silly or something. It feels like the work is intelligent.”

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Chalamet is very correct to be excited about working with Villeneuve. The filmmaker started with intense thrillers like INCENDIES and PRISONERS and has since delivered two of the best sci-fi movies of the decade with ARRIVAL and BLADE RUNNER. He’s the best choice to take on DUNE, and Chalamet has nabbed the opportunity of a lifetime to get top billing in such a huge movie, which pairs nicely with that Oscar nomination. Not bad for a 22-year-old actor.