Dune Director Struggling to Finish Movie on Schedule

Denis Villeneuve's Dune may have wrapped principal photography last year, but it didn't avoid taking a hit by the pandemic. The film requires post-production work and reshoots set to begin this month, with the director admitting that the global emergency and subsequent lockdown has "crushed" Dune's post-production schedule.

In a recent interview for the Shanghai Film Festival, Villeneuve shares his struggles to finish Dune amidst the quarantine. "I was planning to go back and shoot some elements later because I wanted to readjust the movie," he said. "I needed time. At the time I didn't know that it would be a pandemic…as we were about to go back to do those elements."

"The impact was that it crushed my schedule right now," Villeneuve continued. He adds that it will be a "sprint" to finish the film because they were allowed to continue filming some scenes in a few weeks only. "It meant also that I have to finish some elements of the movie, like VFX and the editing, being in Montreal as my crew stayed in Los Angeles."

Credit: WB

Hopefully, sprinting over the next couple of months for the movie to be finished won't affect much of the final product. Dune is expected to be the start of a new series with a sequel already being written, so there are likely some high expectations for it.

Villeneuve and the rest of the crew will return to Europe later this summer to complete additional filming.

Dune is set for release on December 18.

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