Update: See the first look at the Dune ensemble here.
Following up one sci-fi epic, Blade Runner 2049, director Denis Villeneuve is returning this December with another. His hugely-anticipated adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune features the epic ensemble of Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, David Dastmalchian, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa, and Javier Bardem, and today we get the first look at our lead.
The Call Me By Your Name star plays Paul Atreides in the film–scripted by Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts and Villeneuve–and in the image we see him preparing to depart the seaside world of Caladan to the desert planet of Arrakis, inherited by his wealthy family.
“The immediately appealing thing about Paul was the fact that in a story of such detail and scale and world-building, the protagonist is on an anti-hero’s-journey of sorts,” Chalamet tells Vanity Fair, who revealed the first look. “He thinks he’s going to be sort of a young general studying his father and his leadership of a fighting force before he comes of age, hopefully a decade later, or something like that.”
See the official synopsis below.
A mythic and emotionally charged hero’s journey, Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence—a commodity capable of unlocking humanity’s greatest potential—only those who can conquer their fear will survive.
Of course, for those who haven’t read the book, we won’t spoil anything beyond that, so for now, see the first look and logo below for the film shot by Greig Fraser (Rogue One, Foxcatcher), and check back tomorrow for more.
Dune opens on December 18, 2020.