Dune: Part Two was masterful on its own, but in IMAX, it was truly breathtaking. When director Denis Villeneuve opened his aspect ratio up to the full screen 1:43:1 for scenes such as Paul riding the sandworm, it was like traveling from the theater to Arrakis itself. So, it’s no surprise that, hot on the heels of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey becoming the first ever Hollywood feature to be filmed entirely with full-screen IMAX 70mm-capable film cameras, we now know Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Dune Messiah will continue the trend.
Speaking on CNBC, IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond broke the news in a larger segment about IMAX movies playing, and coming, to theaters. Here’s the clip.
A spokesperson for IMAX confirmed Villeneuve will, in fact, shoot Messiah with IMAX cameras but could not confirm whether it would be the full film, as per Gelfond’s quotes. We also reached out to Warner Bros. but had yet to hear back as of publication. However, Variety later reported that Gelfond’s statement was inaccurate and it won’t be the full movie, just select scenes. That keeps in form with the previous two films.
Of course, there have been many, many rumblings about Dune Messiah over the past several months, with the latest being that Villeneuve will start filming very soon. If this IMAX news is true, though, he will have to wait for Christopher Nolan to finish filming The Odyssey, as there are only a handful of cameras in the world capable of capturing movies in this way, and Nolan currently has all of them.
However, this past weekend, several actors expected to appear in the third Dune film, such as Anya Taylor-Joy and Rebecca Ferguson, were spotted together at an F1 race in the United Kingdom. It’s unconfirmed, but many assumed that’s because they’re all there getting ready for Dune.
And yet, Warner Bros. has yet to officially announce that Villeneuve is even making the film. No official release date, no statement, nothing. (Though, apparently it’s being called Dune Part Three and not Dune Messiah.) Everyone seems to assume it’s happening, especially after the recent casting of the Atreides kids. This IMAX news, though, adds to the overwhelming mountain of evidence that Dune Part Three is coming, it’s coming soon, and it’s going to be big.
Update July 8, 1:15 p.m.: Our original article stated that all of Dune Part Three would be shot in IMAX. However, while that was based on the CEO of IMAX saying as much, later reports corrected that statement, revealing only some of it would be shot in the format. We have updated the article to reflect the conflicting statement.
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