Next for Villeneuve in his two-part “Dune” adaptation, which Walker won’t confirm or deny he’s working on. Considering Walker has been Villeneuve’s go-to editor since “Sicario,” all signs point to him editing “Dune,” set to star Timothee Chalamet and Rebecca Ferguson. For now, Walker is taking the anti-approach to the source material.
“I’ve kept away from Dune discussions. I want to be fresh. It’s good for me to come in from the outside a little bit and read the script when they’re ready for it and when it comes my way, and that’s not a certainty. I don’t want to overload it too much with the older film and reading the book. I Just want to see see what his vision is.”
Also, I finished Frank Herbert's Dune saga. Loved it.
Chalamet revealed to the Philippine Daily Inquirer that he found out Villeneuve would be tackling “Dune” while he was searching the internet on Google one day. The actor compared Villeneuve tackling “Dune” to Christopher Nolan tackling “The Dark Knight,” which made landing a part in “Dune” a top priority.
“It has always been my dream to do a big movie,” Chalamet told the Inquirer. “And looking at the careers of Leonardo DiCaprio or Joaquin Phoenix, those guys exclusively work with great directors. So I always told myself, if you do a big movie, make sure it’s with a really great director. I met Denis at the Hollywood Film Awards last year. I didn’t want to scare him away with my enthusiasm for the project, so I didn’t even bring it up. I just said, ‘Hi.'”
Chalamet eventually landed a meeting with Villeneuve at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. The director had a chance to see Chalamet’s performances in “Call Me by Your Name” and “Beautiful Boy” (somebody snuck him a link, Chalamet said) and thought he was great. Chalamet didn’t have to think twice when Villeneuve offered him the role.
“I have read the script and the book and I am so grateful that it’s a big movie and yet, there’s a real arc to this character,” Chalamet said. “My enthusiasm for the David Lynch version is through the roof. And I got an impression that Denis shares my opinion, too. So working on ‘Dune’ is like a dream come true…I don’t think the film version will suffer from green screen-isms or something, like it’s silly or something. It feels like the work is intelligent.”