Denis Villeneuve Confirms ‘Dune: Messiah’ Script is “Almost Finished”

So, we’re maybe getting a third ‘Dune.’

This morning, Denis Villeneuve confirmed his plans to make “Dune: Messiah” during a press conference in South Korea.

[Dune Messiah] is being written right now, the screenplay is almost finished but it is not 'finished' it will take a little time. I don't know exactly when I will go back to Arrakis - but my dream would be go a last time on this planet that I love

Although a screenplay is being worked on, Villeneuve isn’t sure when he’ll be shooting the film. He mentions that he’d love to first take a “detour” away from the ‘Dune’ universe for his “own sanity,” but that he will eventually direct a final chapter to the saga.

Of course, it’ll all depend on how well “Dune: Part Two” does. We won’t know until its March 2024 release date. The first one, released during the pandemic, did decently well and amassed a large-enough fanbase.

Villeneuve added that he believes “Dune: Part Two” is “much better” than the first chapter:

For me, this film is much better than part one. There’s a relationship to the characters. I was trying to reach for an intensity and a quality of emotions that I didn’t reach with part one and that I did reach with part two. I won’t say the film is perfect, but I’m much more happy with part two than I was with part one.

Turning “Dune” into a film has been a lifelong dream for Villeneuve, ever since his childhood in rural Montreal — at 8-years-old he was storyboarding his “Dune” movie.

It makes sense that he would want to keep on making these films. Herbert’s ‘Messiah’ is known as the closure of the saga, Villeneuve adds that in the books released after ‘Messiah’ the story gets a little too “esoteric” to actually make films based on those stories.

Will Villeneuve take a break before embarking on the third film ‘Messiah’? He still wants to make “Cleopatra” and there are loose rumors about his helming a Bond movie. He was also supposed to shoot an HBO limited series with Jake Gylenhaal in the fall before the strikes thwarted those plans.

Three weeks ago, screenwriter Eric Roth had mentioned that he was writing a screenplay for Villeneuve that had to do with “space and time.” Some guessed that it was ‘Messiah’ while others believed it to be his long-gestating adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s “Rendezvous With Rama.”

Villeneuve has built up quite the filmography in recent years — there’s a large fanbase for his work. Some of his past films include “Incendies,” “Sicario,” “Arrival” and “Blade Runner 2049.”