Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1529668
D U N E : P A R T T W O | P E R S P E C T I V E 7 3 Melbourne, October 26, 2021, 6:00 am The alarm had just rung for me to wake up and start my day. As I picked up my phone to shut it off, I realized that I had received overnight an unusual number of emails and text messages. One of them from Denis Villeneuve caught my attention: "WARNING: It's starting to smell like spice." Followed by multiple phone call attempts. Dune: Part Two had just been officially greenlit. The book being too big of a story to be told in a single movie, it had been planned from the get-go that it would be split into two movies. But Part One had to be a commercial success to guarantee the sequel to be made. And there we were. Not only did Denis and I share our excitement during our first conversation but also our desire to make it different. We would not revisit any of the sets from Part One as we wanted the second film to feel fresh and new. Denis had already turned in a first draft of the script, which he shared with me. I realized then that the task was truly greater and got even more excited. Once again, what I love about working with Denis is that he doesn't accept the status quo and that he allows his team to dream. We always move forward and it allows us to go deeper into details. Shortly after, on the same day, I received a call from Herb Gains, who is head of production at Legendary, and he laid out the broad strokes of the plan and parameters. To meet the scheduled release date, we had to start shooting on the first week of July 2022. He asked if we could speak again a couple of days later after I had read the script so we could discuss sound stages and the need to plan around actors' availabilities. The reality hit. The number of sets exceeded by far the amount we had for Part One. Once again, the idea was to shoot as much as possible on practical and immersive sets as we had previously done. This meant we would need a lot more sound stages... We would be occupying stages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and three backlots at Origo Studio, as well as Stages G and H at Hungexpo in Budapest, for a total of 332,117 square feet of interior stages to fill and 310,000 square feet of exterior backlot to start with, before heading to Jordan and Abu Dhabi to build some more. Once again, ther would be a tight collaboration between the Art Department with the cinematographer Greig Fraser, VFX supervisor Paul Lambert and SFX supervisor Gerd Nefzer. A. EXTERIOR RAMALLO'S DEN SHOT IN WADI RUM, JORDAN. FAKE FACADE WITH ENTRANCE ADDED TO EXISTING ROCK FORMATION. PRODUCTION STILL. B. INTERIOR FREMEN FEDAYKIN COMMUNAL TENT. CONCEPT ART BY KAMEN ANEV IN ZBRUSH AND PHOTOSHOP. C. EXTERIOR FREMEN CAMP. LIWA DESERT ABU DHABI. PRODUCTION STILL. D. INTERIOR STILLTENT DETAIL. SET PHOTO. E. FREMEN WINDTRAPS. WADI RUM, JORDAN. PRODUCTION STILL. PHOTORAPHY BY NIKO TAVERNISE E