The first full-length Dune trailer is out and boy it’s epic beyond proportions. The trailer gives us a first look at some of the story’s major players with special emphasis on Timothee Chalamet’s Paul Atreides. It’s graced with gorgeous visuals and cinematography, a superb sense of scale and a score of sheer epic brilliance, all things we desperately wanted to see from the first teaser trailer.
We don’t get the full details of the story but then again, we don’t need to. Dune is an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s seminal 1965 science-fiction novel of the same name and its story is out there for everyone to experience. Denis Villeneuve seems to have done a magnificent job handling the core cast of characters and while the teaser trailer may be too early to tell if he’s pulled it off, the seriously strong Blade Runner 2049 vibes suggest a master in control of his medium. Which should at least bode well for its critical reception.
But, despite being a great movie, the big question is will Dune work at the box office. The last one certainly didn’t and Dune has traditionally been a fairly tricky adaptation to pull off due in large part to its complex story with a labirynth of characters that quickly ascends to Game of Thrones levels of detail at times. Villeneuve may finally have the sauce to pull it off but here’s hoping audiences bless this one with box-office dollars and give Warner Bros. the confidence to turn this into a full-franchise.
There’s of course, the lingering question of whether Warner Bros. will stick to its December 18, 2020 release date. Already murmurs are rife that we’re barely seeing a slowdown in case. Having said that, Tenet did release and is running in theaters (wherever they’re open) so it looks like movie releases are finally happening. We may just have to get used to a world where not everyone gets to watch a big-budget Hollywood production on the same day.
For now, Dune releases in theaters on December 18, 2020. I’ll update you if that date changes. And now, I’m off to hunt the Dune trailer in high-quality 4K with 5.1 surround sound.