Dune: Messiah | Legendary set to give Dune 3 the green light

Dune: Part Two
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With a script on the go, great early box office numbers in the can and key financiers up for it, a third Dune film ā€“ Dune: Messiah ā€“ is looking like a certainty.


Dune: Part Two is in cinemas right now and happily, everything looks to be going well for Denis Villeneuveā€™s big-budget slice of sci-fi cinema. The film is getting great reviews (hereā€™s ours) and making plenty of cash at the box office too.

Our own Ryan Lambie called it ā€˜2024’s first truly great multiplex filmā€™ and critics tend to be in agreement that the ever-reliant Villeneuve has done the business again.

Those good vibes seem to have extended as far as Legendary Entertainment, the filmā€™s production company and co-financier. The companyā€™s CEO, Josh Grode was asked this week about a third Dune film and he expressed confidence that it would happen, stating:

“We have to have all creative stakeholders aligned and support the vision. I think everybody is very excited and really enjoying this moment and if Denis [Villeneuve] gets the script right and he feels that he can deliver another experience on par with what we’ve just completed then I don’t see why not.”

As far as the script goes, weā€™ve known since last summer that Villeneuve has been penning the third film and weā€™ve heard of late that heā€™s almost done. Given that Dune: Part Two has pulled in $178.5 million so far, the biggest opening of 2024, everybody seems to be keen for the filmmaker to close out his trilogy with Dune: Messiah.

This will presumably be based on Frank Herbertā€™s slimmer tome, which is set a decade after the original book.

Dune seems to be in Villeneuveā€™s immediate future then, although with the next novel featuring a substantial time gap, thereā€™s always the small chance he might decide to focus on another project first. We know he has a project brewing based on ā€˜space and timeā€™ which has a script penned by Eric Roth (catch our recent podcast interview with Roth here) and then thereā€™s Villeneuveā€™s planned Cleopatra movie too.

Still, Messiah probably is next in line but when we hear an official confirmation, weā€™ll let you know.

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