One of the most highly anticipated films of the year is certainly Dune, a sci-fi epic directed by a lauded filmmaker (Denis Villeneuve) and based on a beloved, iconic novel by Frank Herbert. The Warner Bros. film was one of the most anticipated films of last year before the pandemic forced the studio to delay the movie, but now it’s on track to hit theaters (and HBO Max) this October, and co-writer Eric Roth has high praise for what Villeneuve put together.
I recently got the chance to speak with Roth for an exclusive, extended interview about his work as a producer on the Oscar-nominated Netflix film Mank, and during our conversation we spoke briefly about his involvement with Dune and whether he’s working on the sequel.
Timothee Chalamet leads the sci-fi film, which takes place in the far future and finds Chalamet and his family moving to a dangerous desert planet where his father (played by Oscar Isaac) is tasked with overseeing mining operations. The tremendous ensemble cast also includes Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgard, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, and many more.
During our interview, Roth – who is one of three writers on Dune alongside Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts – couldn’t help but gush about the sci-fi epic, which he’s already seen. And he revealed that his involvement came about because he worked with Villeneuve previously on the filmmaker’s terrific 2016 film Arrival:
“[Working on Dune] was wonderful. I'd done some work for Denis on Arrival and we became kind of a little bit of soulmates. And so when Dune came along, he asked me if I would approach it. And I did, and I wrote a big, full, overwritten Eric Roth draft that had certain things special to me. It needed to be, honestly, cut down and sort of harnessed, and Denis did some of that, and they eventually brought in a writer — I was busy, so they brought in a a writer named Jon Spaihts, who is a wonderful writer, who I think kept it grounded. And I think he... I don't want to say Lord of the Rings, but I think it's really pretty spectacular. He’s a visionary of his own kind, Denis.”
Roth confirmed that this upcoming Dune movie only adapts the first half of the book, which he didn’t know when he started writing:
“It’s completely the first half. Yeah. I didn't know when we started, so I think I adapted a little more than the first half and started going into the second half of the book. But I've seen the film, it's pretty much the first half.”
I asked if Roth is involved in the potential sequel, adapting the second half of the book, and he says he wrote an outline as part of Villeneuve’s pitch to the Frank Herbert estate to land the rights, but is keen to move on to different kinds of projects in the near future:
“I [wrote] a treatment to show the estate what we could do with the second half, but I’ve got to tell you that I think I've done as much as I can do. I also have other things I want to do. I'm 76 years old, and these things obviously take a long time to do. And so I have a few others I'm excited about. And hopefully people love Dune so much that they do want to have a second part, and I'm sure Denis would do amazing version of that.”
Last we heard, Spaihts was involved in writing a script for a Dune sequel, but Warner Bros. hasn’t yet officially greenlit the follow-up so that will likely depend on how well the first film does when it hits theaters and HBO Max on the same day later this year.
Look for my full interview with Roth on Collider soon.