Director Villeneuve Hopes to Win over Fans Old and New with 'Dune' Film

Actor Actor Timothee Chalamet and director Denis Villeneuve at the 78th Venice Film Festival. (Reuters)
Actor Actor Timothee Chalamet and director Denis Villeneuve at the 78th Venice Film Festival. (Reuters)
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Director Villeneuve Hopes to Win over Fans Old and New with 'Dune' Film

Actor Actor Timothee Chalamet and director Denis Villeneuve at the 78th Venice Film Festival. (Reuters)
Actor Actor Timothee Chalamet and director Denis Villeneuve at the 78th Venice Film Festival. (Reuters)

Denis Villeneuve hopes to win over fans of Frank Herbert's epic 1965 science fiction novel "Dune" as well as introduce new ones to the story with his mammoth movie adaptation, the most challenging production of the Canadian director's career.

Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya star in the hotly anticipated film, which hits US and UK cinemas later this month and follows past attempts to take Herbert's 400-page book to the silver screen.

Set in the future where noble families rule planetary fiefs, the story follows Paul Atreides (Chalamet), whose father takes on the stewardship of planet Arrakis, known as Dune to its native Fremen people and contested for its unique spice commodity found in its inhospitable desert.

"It was by far the most challenging thing I've done in my life," Villeneuve, known for "Blade Runner 2049" and "Sicario", told Reuters.

"I had to find an equilibrium between the people who had read the book ... I wanted them to really feel that it was a profound homage to the spirit of the book. At the same time, I wanted people who knew nothing about the book to feel welcome in the world, not left aside."

The two-and-a-half-hour movie, described as part one of the story, is Chalamet's biggest project to date, something he says helped him relate to character Paul overcoming his fears.

"(I've) never been on a project of this size before," Chalamet said. "Sometimes the things you're feeling on set can bleed into the natural arc or progression of a story."

Villeneuve's "Dune" follows Alejandro Jodorowsky's unsuccessful attempt in the mid-1970s and David Lynch's critically-panned 1984 version.

With sweeping landscapes and dark mood, critics have lauded this film as a visual spectacle in reviews.

"It's a book that's been the source material for a lot of bigger ideas like 'Star Wars'," actor Josh Brolin, who plays weapons master Gurney, said.

"The movie's been done in different eras with different technological possibilities. And now we're in an era that's so technologically advanced we're able to see that version of it."

Javier Bardem, who plays Fremen tribe leader Stilgar, said the mood on set was relaxed.

"I never felt that pressure on (Villeneuve) when he was working with us," he said. "It's a huge one, and I wouldn't be able to hold it myself and have the humor, the joy and the attitude that he had on set."

Villeneuve said it was too early to talk about part two but Zendaya hopes her character Chani, who appears in Paul's visions, will be further explored.

"Anyone who's familiar with the books (knows) there’s so much to dive into and there's so much still to come," she said.

"It truly is only the beginning. So I do hope that we get to stay with these characters for a little bit longer."



Tim Burton Talks about His Dread of AI as an Exhibition of His Work Opens in London

 A member of staff poses at The World of Tim Burton exhibition at the Design Museum, in London, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP)
A member of staff poses at The World of Tim Burton exhibition at the Design Museum, in London, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP)
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Tim Burton Talks about His Dread of AI as an Exhibition of His Work Opens in London

 A member of staff poses at The World of Tim Burton exhibition at the Design Museum, in London, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP)
A member of staff poses at The World of Tim Burton exhibition at the Design Museum, in London, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP)

The imagination of Tim Burton has produced ghosts and ghouls, Martians, monsters and misfits – all on display at an exhibition that is opening in London just in time for Halloween.

But you know what really scares him? Artificial intelligence.

Burton said Wednesday that seeing a website that had used AI to blend his drawings with Disney characters “really disturbed me.”

“It wasn’t an intellectual thought — it was just an internal, visceral feeling,” Burton told reporters during a preview of “The World of Tim Burton” exhibition at London’s Design Museum. “I looked at those things and I thought, ‘Some of these are pretty good.’ ... (But) it gave me a weird sort of scary feeling inside.”

Burton said he thinks AI is unstoppable, because “once you can do it, people will do it.” But he scoffed when asked if he’d use the technology in this work.

“To take over the world?” he laughed.

The exhibition reveals Burton to be an analogue artist, who started off as a child in the 1960s experimenting with paints and colored pencils in his suburban Californian home.

“I wasn’t, early on, a very verbal person,” Burton said. “Drawing was a way of expressing myself.”

Decades later, after films including “Edward Scissorhands,” “Batman,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Beetlejuice,” his ideas still begin with drawing. The exhibition includes 600 items from movie studio collections and Burton's personal archive, and traces those ideas as they advance from sketches through collaboration with set, production and costume designers on the way to the big screen.

London is the exhibition’s final stop on a decade-long tour of 14 cities in 11 countries. It has been reconfigured and expanded with 90 new objects for its run in the British capital, where Burton has lived for a quarter century.

The show includes early drawings and oddities, including a competition-winning “crush litter” sign a teenage Burton designed for Burbank garbage trucks. There’s also a recreation of Burton’s studio, down to the trays of paints and “Curse of Frankenstein” mug full of pencils.

Alongside hundreds of drawings, there are props, puppets, set designs and iconic costumes, including Johnny Depp’s “Edward Scissorhands” talons and the black latex Catwoman costume worn by Michelle Pfeiffer in “Batman.”

“We had very generous access to Tim’s archive in London, stuffed full of thousands of drawings, storyboards from stop-motion films, sketches, character notes, poems,” said exhibition curator Maria McLintock. “And how to synthesize such a wide ranging and meandering career within one exhibition was a fun challenge — but definitely a challenge.”

Seeing it has not been a wholly fun experience for Burton, who said he’s unable to look too closely at the items on display.

“It’s like seeing your dirty laundry put on the walls,” he said. “It’s quite amazing. It’s a bit overwhelming.”

Burton, whose long-awaited horror-comedy sequel “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” opened at the Venice Film Festival in August, is currently filming the second series of Netflix’ Addams Family-themed series “Wednesday.”

These days he is a major Hollywood director whose American gothic style has spawned an adjective – “Burtoneqsue.” But he still feels like an outsider.

“Once you feel that way, it never leaves you,” he said.

“Each film I did was a struggle,” he added, noting that early films like “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” from 1985 and “Beetlejuice” in 1988 received some negative reviews. “It seems like it was a pleasant, fine, easy journey, but each one leaves its emotional scars.”

McLintock said Burton “is a deeply emotional filmmaker."

“I think that’s what drew me to his films as a child,” she said. "He really celebrates the misunderstood outcast, the benevolent monster. So it’s been quite a weird but fun experience spending so much time in his brain and his creative process.

“His films are often called dark,” she added. “I don’t agree with that. And if they are dark, there’s a very much a kind of hope in the darkness. You always want to hang out in the darkness in his films.”