According to IMAX boss Richard Gelfond, Denis Villeneuve is about to shoot the entirety of Dune Messiah with large format cameras.
If earlier reports are accurate, director Denis Villeneuve is set to begin filming on his sci-fi sequel Dune Messiah this summer, with its release set for December 2026. If some recent comments from IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond are accurate, then the film could look quite different from the previous two chapters, released in 2021 and 2024.
Speaking on the Lord Business-approved CNBC show Squawk On The Street (see below) Gelfond talked about the success of his large-format presentation business, and the subject of Denis Villeneuve came up.
“He’s making the next Dune with IMAX cameras,” Gelfond said. “He’s filming the whole thing.”
The previous Dune movies had some spectacular IMAX sequences, but they weren’t presented entirely in IMAX’s tall aspect ratio, nor were they shot on film. Instead, they used IMAX-approved digital cameras, with the footage then printed onto film to add a layer of grain. (Because most cinemas are digital these days, the film then had to be scanned into a computer again. It was quite a process.)
Gelfond appears to be hinting that Villeneuve and his team will be shot natively on film using IMAX’s 70mm cameras – something Christopher Nolan is currently doing on his current project, The Odyssey.
Speaking at Cannes in May, Gelfond revealed that his company had developed a new generation of lighter, quieter IMAX cameras following a conversation with Nolan – and the tech proved to be so successful that the filmmaker decided to use it exclusively on his currently-in-production mythological epic.
Is Villeneuve adopting the same approach for Dune Messiah? Gizmondo contacted IMAX for comment on what Gelfond said, and the company confirmed that the director will “shoot on Messiah with IMAX cameras” but couldn’t say for definite whether it would be entirely on film.
Gelfond sounds hopeful that Villeneuve will continue to use his company’s format in the future, however, including the filmmaker’s next project: James Bond.
“We haven’t started talking yet, but I’m praying that’s the case with Bond,” he said.
More on Dune Messiah – and its potential use of massive film stock – as it comes in.
