“Hello. I’m Denis Villeneuve. I’m the director of ‘Dune, Part Two’.” [TENSE MUSIC] “So this scene happens exactly after the introduction of Feyd-Rautha, where we saw him as a psychopath. And here, we bring this character into his political environment, where it would be a strange celebration of its birthday, where in Harkonnen culture, the prince will have to fight slaves in order to prove himself in front of the audience. And the whole scene has been designed as a dance between Feyd-Rautha, played by the great Austin Butler, and the crowd. Austin created a cross mix between, I will say, an Olympic sword fighter, a serial killer and Mick Jagger. He brought tremendous sex appeal to the part. And Feyd-Rautha being one of the most iconic characters of ‘Dune’, Austin had big shoes to fill. And I’m very proud of what he brought to the screen. One aspect that I love about Frank Herbert’s ‘Dune’ is all the books is also a study of the impact of the environment on humans. How nature shapes human psyche, behaviors, culture, technology, politics, et cetera. You want to know about the Fremen? You look at the desert. But for the Harkonnen, it’s a bit more tricky because they completely destroyed their natural world. And I was looking for environmental hints, ideas, clues that will give me some hints about who they are exactly. And I thought about, what if their sunlight was subtracting color instead of revealing them? What if they were coming from a black-and-white world? That would give us some idea from where that binary, fascist, cruel behaviors are coming from. As my cinematographer, Greig Fraser, and I were brainstorming together how to bring an alien sunlight that will be black and white to the screen, Greig had the idea to test infrared. And infrared is the light wavelength that is usually blocked into cameras because it’s considered as noise. And we modified the cameras to let only that wavelength come through and block the other colors. And it created that eerie, strange, alien, nightmarish atmosphere I was dreaming of for Giedi Prime.” “Happy birthday, dear nephew.” [CHEERING] “We see almost through skin. The eyes become piercing like insects. And the problem with that technique is that there’s no way to return. We shot it this way. It’s not an effect that was done in post. And so these scenes never appear in colors.” “Why do they not stop the fight?” “Plans within plans.” [DRAMATIC MUSIC] [NON-ENGLISH SINGING]: “Show me who you are.” “Now, all again, this scene is a game between the Baron, who put his nephew, Feyd, under tremendous pressure, so he will be pushed in front of the crowd to prove his valor. And I kept the scene very intimate around Feyd, keeping the crowd in the background just as landscape that will, a bit like the desert for Paul. A pressure that will push on him, and to feel the impact of that pressure in an intimate way. I came up with the design of these picadors, characters that in the book are very frightening. And I came with that kind of devilish shape that seemed to come from one of our nightmares. Again, give us an idea of what is pleasure for Harkonnen, what is sport for them, how cruel or desperately cruel they are. And here’s a moment that I absolutely love, where we feel that Feyd is not afraid of pain. He loves pain. He loves to bleed, to be on the edge between life and death. It’s someone that has only — you respect only one thing, is courage, and good fighters. And the slave who has prove proven his skills gained Feyd’s respect, and that is why he didn’t kill him at first right away. He played with him like a cat and a mouse. It’s a scene that, in some ways, is very close to what was described in the book. And it’s a scene that every time I see it, especially with the insane Hans Zimmer score and the great work of the sound design to bring that crowd to life, I’m very proud of.” “He’s impressive indeed.” [CROWD CHANTING]
