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DUNE www.postmagazine.com 31 POST JAN/FEB 2022 I f there's one thing that people immediately envision when they hear the title Dune, it is the infini e landscape of brown/orange sand. There are also the giant sandworms. And, of course, futuristic vehicles and other worldly environments. All these were fir t described in the 1965 sci- ence-fiction n vel by Frank Herbert and then later brought to life on both the big and small screens, fir t in David Lynch's 1984 feature film and then i John Harrison's 2000 three-part television minise- ries, and again in 2003, with the sequel miniseries Frank Herbert's Children of Dune, based on the author's second and third books in the series. All were extremely ambitious projects. Late last year, moviegoers were re-introduced to this futuristic world of sand, greed, deceit and danger, both aboveground and below, as direc- tor Denis Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049, Arrival) presented his vision of this epic story from Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment. The fil tackles the fir t half of Herbert's book, with Dune: Part 2, which covers the second half of the tome, expected in October 2023. The screenplay, like the book, is set at some dis- tant point in the future and centers on the noble House of Atreides, particularly son Paul (Timothee Chalamet). When his father, Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) is offered stewardship of the des- olate planet Arrakis by the emperor, he knows it is a trap, but cannot refuse the royal request. So, the duke and his family leave their home on the ocean planet of Caladan to oversee the mining operations of "spice," a rare substance produced exclusively on the inhospitable lands of Arrakis that is highly valued throughout the galaxy for its psychogenic powers. After arriving, the Atreides face great dan- ger from the giant sandworms that produce the spice, which is mixed in with the sand, and fin themselves in the midst of unrest, as the local inhabitants, known as the Fremen, are distrust- ing of the new custodians after long fighting or their freedom and homeland against the planet's previous guardians, the cruel Harkonnens, who were expelled by the emperor and replaced by House Atreides. Meanwhile, House Atreides forms an alliance with the Fremen. Soon, however, the Harkonnens wage war on House Atreides — just as the emperor had hoped would happen. Dune reunites Villeneuve with Paul Lambert, two-time VFX Oscar winner who had worked with the director on Blade Runner 2049, serving as overall visual effects supervisor for this latest project. Filming took place during the fir t half of 2019, although COVID delayed the movie's release for more than a year. There were 1,700 VFX shots created for Dune. The main VFX vendor was Dneg, with 1,160 shots coming from the studio. Dneg's work ranged from simple plate-based extensions, digital creatures, digital crowds and massive FX simulations, to all- CG shots. Rodeo FX provided a handful of beauti- ful establishing shots of Caladan and Giedi Prime, the historical home world of House Harkonnen. MPC provided previs, while Wylie Co. handled all the postvis, along with blue eyes, in-house shots, and a cemetery and hologram sequence. "We touched on the full gamut of visual effects," says Lambert. Even with so many VFX shots, the intent was to achieve as much in-camera as possible. "Obviously this is a sci-fi m vie, so you're only going to be able to [physically] build things to a certain extent," Lambert explains. "But, we tried really hard to at least have a basis in the camera so the visual effects artists could copy that and extend it out, rather than just leaving everything to post, where you can spend a lot of cycles, i.e. mon- ey, trying to get something to look believable." While many already had a picture in their head of Dune, whether from the book, the past film o TV series, the filmma ers basically started with a clean slate, bringing this film o life based on Villeneuve's vision. The director and production designer Patrice Vermette had spent at least a year defining mo t aspects of the movie and devising all the looks. Creating Unique Worlds Dune was filmed in a number of loc tions, in- cluding Budapest, Norway, Jordan, United Arab Emirates and California. Extremely large sets were devised by Vermette, in conjunction with Dneg was challenged with creating the film's giant worm creatures. Filming took place the first half of 2019.