‘Dune: Part Three' Is “98% Done” — Denis Villeneuve Admits He's “Tired” of Arrakis and Needs a “Rocket” to James Bond

A Few "Dune: Part Three" Updates

Speaking with a Czech outlet in a new interview, Oscar-winning editor Joe Walker gave an update on "Dune: Part Three," and it sounds like the finish line is in sight:

I'd say it's 98% done. I've gone through screenings in Dolby Atmos, 7.1, 5.1, and IMAX sound formats—and then there are the various image formats: full IMAX, 70mm, 1.90:1, 2.20:1, Dolby Vision...

That's a lot of versions to sign off on, and it tells you just how ambitious the rollout for this one is going to be. Walker won the Oscar for his work on the first "Dune," so it's reassuring that he's been there through every step of the trilogy.

This will be Denis Villeneuve's final trip to Arrakis, and he isn't being sentimental about it. "I said, 'Maybe it's a good idea to go back to this project, not out of nostalgia, not because I miss it, but the opposite—I'm tired of it,'" the director tells Empire Magazine. "I want to make sure that I will be severe with the material. That I will not be complacent."

Villeneuve was officially announced as director of the "Dune" reboot back in February 2017. By the time "Part Three" hits theaters this December, he'll have spent close to a decade working back-to-back on three "Dune" movies. Fatigue has set in, and he hasn't been shy about confirming that "Dune 3 should be the last Dune movie for me."

As for what's next, he already has it lined up: the next James Bond film. "I thought, 'When [Dune 3] is done, I need a very powerful rocket to pull me away from Arrakis.' When I was asked to do the next Bond, I said: 'Okay, this is what I need,'" he tells Empire.

Timothée Chalamet, meanwhile, is pushing back on the idea that this one will be tonally similar to the first two movies: "[Part 3 is] its own beast. It's its own story, its own siege, its own hail of paranoid isolation." Villeneuve agrees: "The idea was to try to make a movie that will have the same DNA — it's a Dune movie — but it's a very different movie."

"Dune: Part Three" opens in theaters this December. Below are exclusive first-look images from Empire Magazine's cover story, which hits newsstands October 22.