“I’m tired of it.” Denis Villeneuve said that about Arrakis, in the same breath as explaining why he agreed to make a third Dune film. In an Empire cover story published in mid-October 2026, he said he went back “not out of nostalgia, not because I miss it, but the opposite.”
Fatigue, he argued, is useful. “I want to make sure that I will be severe with the material,” he told the magazine. “That I will not be complacent.”
The rocket out of the desert
His exit was planned before the cameras rolled. “When it’s done, I need a very powerful rocket to pull me away from Arrakis,” Villeneuve said. When he was asked to do the next James Bond film, his answer was: “Okay, this is what I need.” Amazon MGM Studios named him as director in June 2025, on a single-film deal, with Steven Knight writing, and Amy Pascal and David Heyman producing. His wife and creative partner, Tanya Lapointe, is an executive producer.
The Bond job carries real feeling for him. “Some of my earliest movie-going memories are connected to 007,” he said. “I grew up watching James Bond films with my father, ever since Dr. No with Sean Connery. I’m a die-hard Bond fan. To me, he’s sacred territory.” He called it a massive responsibility and an incredibly exciting honor.
A long runway
The calendar is generous. Principal photography on Dune: Part Three began on July 8, 2025 in Budapest, moved to the Liwa Oasis in the United Arab Emirates, and wrapped on November 11, 2025, according to FanBolt. The film opens in theaters on December 18, 2026. Bond is expected to start shooting in 2027, and FanBolt cited Deadline in putting the target release at November 2028. No release date has been announced.
Nobody wears the tuxedo yet. Jack Lowden’s name has come up most, but there is no official confirmation. Gary Oldman said in September that Amazon had already chosen, then told Deadline he had “heard a rumor” and that “there’s six people on a shortlist.”
What Dune: Part Three is about
The film adapts Frank Herbert’s novel Dune Messiah, with a screenplay credited to Villeneuve and Brian K. Vaughan, and widens the time jump between chapters to seventeen years. Timothée Chalamet’s Paul is now a sitting emperor. Robert Pattinson plays Scytale, Florence Pugh is Irulan, and Anya Taylor-Joy is Alia. Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem and Charlotte Rampling return or join. Linus Sandgren shot it instead of Greig Fraser, who was committed to Sam Mendes’s Beatles films.
Villeneuve told Empire the story turns on “the idea of a separation, the idea of a divorce.” He added, “With me, it happened.” Zendaya described where Chani ends up as “a deep pain, a deep mistrust, a deep betrayal.”
He has another project waiting too: an adaptation of Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario, in development at Legendary with no date.
Sources
- Why Denis Villeneuve Returned for 'Dune: Part Three' and Chose James Bond as His Next Move – FanBolt
- James Bond: Denis Villeneuve Explains Why 007 Was a Perfect Choice for Him After Dune 3
