Director Denis Villeneuve hopes that audiences will watch “Dune” in movie theaters.
“At the end of the day these are difficult times for everybody, safety first, if the audience feels comfortable I encourage them to watch it on the big screen,” Villeneuve said at a press conference on Friday at the Venice Film Festival.
“It has ben dreamed, designed, shot, thinking IMAX,” Villeneuve said. “When you watch this movie on the big screen, it is a physical experience. We tried to design it to be as immersive as possible.”
In December, Warner Bros. — the studio that is releasing “Dune” — announced that its entire movie slate for 2021 would premiere both in theaters and on HBO Max on the same day, as a result of COVID-19 shuttering movie theaters.
But Villeneuve wants audiences around the world to make their way to a movie theater, even if “Dune” is available to screen in their homes.
“It has been made, designed, thinking IMAX,” Villeneuve said. “When you watch this movie on the big screen, it’s a physical experience.”
Chalamet stars in the sci-fi tentpole as Paul Atreides, the character based on Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel. He said that he’d watched Kyle MacLachlan’s performance in the 1984 original “Dune” film shortly before shooting, but tried to make the character his own.
The actor called the project “the honor of a lifetime.” He said that he hoped that he’d be able to make a second film. “I hope we can do a second one,” he said. “That would be a dream.”
Chalamet said that he practiced his “sandwalk” in the film with choreographer Benjamin Millepied. “Hopefully we’ll see on TikToks, people doing the same stuff.”
“Dune” will be released theatrically and on HBO Max in the United States on Oct. 22.