Warner Bros.’ CinemaCon panel concluded with what seems to unanimously be the night’s biggest highlight: a screening of the first seven minutes of Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Three.”
The footage opens under crashing thunder layered with pounding music during the opening credits. Without warning, spacecraft emerge from a violent storm. A few are hit by lightning and destroyed, while the rest manage to break through the turbulence and head down toward the planet below. What comes next is a violent, rain-soaked battle on a distant planet, with Emperor Paul’s forces, led by Stilgar, charging into combat.
To say the reception was positive would be an understatement. Judging by the reactions—many of which compared the footage to the iconic Normandy assault in Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan”—Villeneuve may have delivered something very special with this third and final chapter of the franchise.
I’ve included several reactions below the article, mostly from journalists I recognize, in an effort to avoid overly enthusiastic fan commentary—but even so, the response to the footage has been overwhelmingly positive. Quite interesting how so many of them are making comparisons to ‘Private Ryan.’
While on stage, Villeneuve explained that he intended to move the story in a fresh direction, noting he doesn’t want to “walk in my own footsteps.” He described how each installment shifts in tone, with the first Dune feeling more “meditative,” the second leaning into the “war” genre, and the upcoming film taking on the tension of a “thriller.” Set 17 years after “Part II,” the narrative unfolds in what he characterized as a “very different world.”
Greig Fraser, who was cinematographer on Villeneuve’s first two ‘Dune’ movies, is not returning for the third instalment. Fraser’s replacement will be the Oscar winning Sandgren whose most notable work can be seen in “La La Land,” and “No Time to Die.”
‘Dune: Part 3’ is also being shot on film, including 15-perf 65mm (IMAX) and 5-perf 65mm formats. This switch to film marks a significant departure from the first two Dune instalments, both of which were shot digitally. As can be seen in the trailer, Villeneuve is going for a more organic aesthetic to close out his sci-fi trilogy.
“Dune: Part Three” stars Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jason Momoa, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Robert Pattinson, Isaach de Bankolé and Nakoa-Wolf Momoa, among others in key roles. The film is scheduled to open in theaters on December 18, 2026 via Warner Bros.
Starring Helen Mirren, the film reimagines the final chapter of Patricia Highsmith’s life through a fictional encounter with an ambitious young literary agent, played by Alden Ehrenreich.