Hailed as "the most anticipated super blockbuster of 2021", Dune was released on October 22. The film stars "Sweet Tea" Timothy Chalame, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Zandaa, Jason Momma, Javier Baden, Zhang Zhen and others. In an interview, the film's director, Dennis Villeneuve, said, "I would like to say that Dune is the most ambitious and difficult film I have ever made. ”
The movie "Dune" presents a mysterious and shocking journey of a young hero to become a king. The gifted teenager Paul Erridi is guided by fate to defend his family and people, determined to embark on a thrilling adventure to the most dangerous planet in the vast universe. At the same time, various forces have joined the battlefield in order to seize a precious resource on this planet that can unleash the greatest potential of humanity. Ultimately, only those who can overcome their inner fears will survive.
origin
Director Villeneuve's Teenage Dream
With its magnificent story, profound themes, and genius ideas, The Dune, the classic science fiction novel written by Frank Herbert, won the world's top science fiction awards, becoming the first work in the history of science fiction to win both the "Hugo Award" and the "Nebula Award", and was also shortlisted for the "100 Books you must read in a lifetime" and the BBC's "100 Most Popular Books in the UK" list. This book inspired a series of classic science fiction movies such as Star Wars and Avatar. It is said that the movie "Star Wars" borrowed a lightsaber from it, "Avatar" almost copied the plot, and "Alien" borrowed its artistic setting.
For the famous Canadian director Dennis Villeneuve, "Dune" is his love for science fiction themes that continues to this day. He revealed that he was completely fascinated by Dune at the age of about fourteen or fifteen, "and its poetry and interpretation of nature fascinated me." As a teenager, Villeneuve and his friends drew characters and sandworms from Dune novels into storyboards. Later, when asked what he would like to adapt into a movie without considering the cost, he replied, "My answer must be Dune." ”
After filming the two popular science fiction themes of "Arrival" and "Blade Runner 2049", Villeneuve was hailed as the director who could break the shackles of science fiction the most, and thus got the coveted opportunity to shoot "Dune".
But the difficulty of adapting "Dune" is obvious to all: the gold medal director who has a heart for "Dune" has succeeded him, but none of them can get out of the production hell, and it is useless to come out. Oscar director David Lynch once overturned, and the geniuses Jodulovsky, Dali, and Pink Floyd wanted to remake, but in the end they all died without success.
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Everything should be as close as possible to the original
When deciding to shoot Dune, Villeneuve said the first thing he said was to ask himself, what kind of sandworms should it be?
Sandworms are a behemoth that can reach more than 400 meters and can attack spice collectors deep in the desert because they are highly territorial beasts that want to defend their spice farms. Villeneuve admits that designing sandworms was a big challenge. "The sandworm image has been recreated in the artwork over the years, and I hope to bring a fresh perspective. So, I told the art director Patrice that this should be a prehistoric monster. It grows in the harshest, toughest environments, where the sun is hot and the sand is scalding hot, and you can imagine something else living in a harsher environment. From this feeling, sandworms need to look like survivors who have been baptized by centuries of sand and dust, with a prehistoric quality. These sandworms have rough skin, some scales, and feed on the desert microbiome sand krill, so they need to have a whale-like skeleton so that they can filter the sand and get food from it. ”
In the end, Villeneuve and the art director spent more than a year designing sandworms. They looked for clues from the entire ecosystem herbert had created around sandworms, from the texture of their skin to the way their mouths opened when they ate in the desert, starting with every little detail that made such a beast look more plausible. Villeneuve said: "It was a long and fascinating process, and in the end we succeeded. I think Frank Herbert would approve of our version of the sandworm, which should end up looking like a frightening, memorable creature, and the embodiment of the lord of the desert, which is awe-inspiring. ”
Villeneuve wanted everything to be as close to the spirit of the original book as possible. His very clear advice to art director Patrice and his team was, "Guys, stay away from the web, the main source I want your dreams to come from is this book." I want you all to read the original book, I want you to dream, and I want the images of these ideas to come from your subconscious, not from some gallery of images. I sincerely hope this film comes from your heart and soul. ”
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The only condition is to shoot in the field
In order to present the characteristics of different planets, Villeneuve and his team went to many places around the world to shoot and shoot scenes, such as the beautiful ice fields in Norway, the strange rock formations in Jordan, and the endless deserts in Abu Dhabi, forming a beautiful science fiction picture. Villeneuve said: "The only condition I put forward for the film 'Dune' was that I wanted to shoot on location and didn't want to transport the sand to a man-made location. I told them that Jaws wasn't made in a swimming pool. I wanted the film to be as realistic as possible, that all the designs were as evidence-based as possible, and that to some extent followed the laws of nature, the laws of gravitation, and so on. Truly feel the world through the enlightenment of nature – light, wind, sand and dust. Hardcore fans of the original book were able to recognize Frank Herbert's description at a glance. ”
The desert was filmed in Jordan, and Villeneuve said he had shot Scorched Earth in Jordan before, "and I was thinking, if one day I can have a chance to shoot Dunes, this is where I want to be." Because the scenery there is extremely magnificent, with unique and strange rock formations, it looks like it comes from another world, and the light is also intoxicating. When you are in the middle of the desert in Jordan, you feel the smallness of human beings. Such an environment will make you feel eternal and boundless. ”
The fly in the ointment is that Jordan does not have a sea of sand dunes. So they searched around again, and finally found the ideal place was Abu Dhabi, "where the sand dunes are magnificent and magnificent, even though it is too hot." For me, the decision to shoot live is unconditional, I have to shoot in the real desert, capture the light in the desert, capture the spirit of the desert. ”
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"Sweet Tea" was chosen because of his deep eyes
Another important reason why Villeneuve is reluctant to make science fiction in front of a green screen is the actors. Dune brings together the world's top performers such as "Sweet Tea" Timothy Chalame, "Thanos" Josh Brolin and Zhang Zhen.
In Villeneuve's view, "At the end of the day, the soul of cinema is the lines and the actors. To unleash this soul with maximum energy, you need to inspire the actors. And to inspire actors, I think a lot of 'real' elements are important. ”
Who is the most suitable candidate? He thinks "Timothy was my first choice, and he was Paul Erridi in my mind." Luckily, convincing him to join wasn't a difficult task, as he loved Dune himself. First of all, 'Sweet Tea' eyes are very deep, look very wise, Paul is a man full of wisdom, he will re-imagine the world, will embrace a different reality, will adapt to a new reality, which requires enough wisdom and adaptability. Second, Paul needs to have enough charisma to become the future leader, and 'Sweet Tea' has an innate superstar temperament. In addition, 'Sweet Tea' looks like a teenager in front of the camera, close to Paul's sense of age in the original book. That's just right for the character of Paul Ertridy. ”
Choosing Zhang Zhen, Villeneuve said because he was a fan of Zhang Zhen, "I saw Zhang Zhen's performance in Wong Kar-wai's movie "Spring Breaks". I loved this movie so much that I've been silently following him ever since. He is one of the best actors today. I had the opportunity to be friends with Zhang Zhen at the Cannes Film Festival, when we were both judges. When I began to cast Dr. Yue, I naturally thought of Zhang Zhen. I'm very happy that he embraced it and I'm very grateful to him for agreeing to embark on this journey. ”
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An important element of a good movie is poetry
"Dunes" was specially produced by IMAX, and when screened in IMAX theaters, "Dunes" will have more than one hour of important scenes presented in IMAX special formats, which can stretch up and down the entire IMAX screen, adding 26% of the picture content to the audience, as Villeneuve said: "Dunes was created for the IMAX big screen from the beginning. ”
Villeneuve said they decided early on that some of the footage would be shot in IMAX format, "and IMAX would be used for dreams and desert-related content." For technical reasons, the rest was shot with a 235 camera, which keeps the IMAX effect alive because you need to pull out of it from time to time, just like breathing. In fact, our entire project was designed from day one to watch on the big screen, on the IMAX screen. If you watch Dune on TV at home, I can only say sorry, it's like driving a speedboat in a bathtub, it's ridiculous. ”
Asked what constitutes the most important element of a good film, Villeneuve's answer is: poetry. "Why should the audience go to the movies? It is because it is necessary to find emotion in the poetry of the image. When you're talking to someone and occasionally mentioning the name of a movie, scenes spontaneously pop up in your head. Scenes that are deeply imprinted for some reason will touch the depths of your heart because they have a deeper meaning. And these meanings were carefully planned by the production team when filming. These design elements create an invisible meaning that is ineffable, and that is the poetic beauty of cinema. ”
Dune is also a poetic work by Villeneuve, "feeling humble in the face of nature, willing to embrace nature, and drawing poetry from it." This is the emotion I still try to maintain in the film. ”
The slogan on the script of "Dune" reads: "If you don't adapt, you perish." Villeneuve said he took this quote to heart, "I need to adapt or I'll die." It's like trying to find new skills, exploring my own faith in film, embracing new ways of doing things. ”
Villeneuve says he learned a lot from the filming of Dune: "I desperately needed to reinvent myself because I felt too comfortable before. I wanted to make a different attempt in Dune and put myself in danger. Shooting in real-world locations is an unusual experience, and every day I walk on thin ice. But I will always miss the days when we were filming deep in the desert, arguably the most exciting and beautiful shoot to date, a great adventure that I will cherish for the rest of my life. ”
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Dennis Villeneuve
One of the two gods of the festival
Dennis Villeneuve is a hot sci-fi film director in Hollywood, and Nolan has been jokingly called the two gods of the film industry by fans - "Vythe" and "Noshin".
Born on October 3, 1967 in Quebec, Canada, Villeneuve graduated from the University of Quebec in Montreal. In 2010, he directed the feature film "Scorched Earth", which won the Best Director Award and the Best Adapted Screenplay Award at the 30th Canadian Gini Awards, and was also nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Award at the 83rd Academy Awards.
In 2015, Villeneuve directed the crime drama "Border Killer", which was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 68th Cannes International Film Festival. In 2016, his director of the science fiction drama film "Arrival" was nominated for the Best Director Award at the 89th Academy Awards. In 2017, he directed the science fiction film Blade Runner 2049 and was nominated for the Best Director Award at the 71st British Academy Film Awards. In 2018, he was a jury member of the 71st Cannes International Film Festival.
Text/Reporter Xiao Yang Coordinator/Liu Jianghua