Denis Villeneuve‘s Dune: Part Two is getting Steven Spielberg‘s seal of approval. The Oscar-winning director is praising not only the film, but the Canadian filmmakers vision and creativity.
Speaking to Villeneuve for DGA’s The Director’s Cut podcast, Spielberg started by putting him in a list of directors he calls “builders of worlds.”
“Let me start by saying there are filmmakers who are the builders of worlds. It’s not a long list and we know who a lot of them are,” Spielberg said. “Starting with [Georges] Méliès and Disney and Kubrick, George Lucas. Ray Harryhausen I include in that list. Fellini built his own worlds. Tim Burton. Obviously Wes Anderson, Peter Jackson, James Cameron, Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott, Guillermo del Toro. The list goes on but it’s not that long of a list, and I deeply, fervently believe that you are one of its newest members.”
Spielberg went on to call out one of his favorite scenes from the Timothée Chalamet-starring film where Paul rides a sandworm.
“This is a desert-loving story, but for such a desert-loving film there is such a yearning for water in this movie,” Spielberg noted. “For all the sand you have in this film, it’s really about water. The sacred waters that are yearning for green meadows and the blue water of life.”
He continued, “You film the desert to resemble an ocean, a sea. The sandworms were like sea serpents. And that scene surfing the sandworms is one of the greatest things I have ever seen. Ever! But you made the desert look like a liquid.”
Spielberg told Villeneuve, “You have made one of the most brilliant science fiction films I have ever seen,” and said that Dune: Part Two “is truly a visual epic and it’s also filled with deeply, deeply drawn characters.”
Dune: Part Two is based on the 1965 novel by Frank Herbert also stars Zendaya, Austin Butler, Zendaya and Florence Pugh, among many more.