THE MAKING OF DUNC

A trip to Florence, Oregon, where the United States Department of A Agriculture was trying to figure out how to prevent the encroachment of sand dunes, laid the foundation for a seminal sci-fi classic that combined the hero’s journey with the social and political ramifications of colonisation.

Previous attempts have been made to adapt Dune, with a big-screen version by David Lynch (The Straight Story) and two miniseries helmed by John Harrison (Creepshow) and Greg Yaitanes (Manhunt) coming to fruition, but this did not stop Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049) from fulfilling his teenage ambition to bring his own vision of the world conceived by Frank Herbert to cinemas.

At the centre of the galactic power struggle is the desert planet of Arrakis, home of the nomadic Fremen and giant sandworms that produce a rare spice known as Melange, which enables interstellar travel and provides the user with psychic abilities. “It’s called but there are a lot of rock formations,” notes production designer Patrice Vermette (). “Denis and I were thinking of the Indigenous tribes in the South Pacific, when they travel would they actually go from one island to another or cross the deep sea? No. That would be too dangerous. Within the desert we needed to have. Arrakis was founded by a colonial entity. When you’re a colonial entity, what do you do? You build these massive things to show that you are powerful. That’s where the Brutalism from Eastern Europe came into play. The wind goes 850km an hour and can tear metal. They are going to build everything using the stone and at an angle so that the wind would sweep over it like the sand dunes.”