Daily Dune: Legendary Says “Messiah” Officially In Development

We knew director Denis Villeneuve wanted to make a third “Dune” film. In fact, he’s been talking about actively working on the script for his version of “Dune Messiah” for years. With the success of “Dune Part Two,” it was only a matter of time before Legendary Pictures confirmed it was definitely in development. That’s what we’re hearing now.

Buried in coverage of Villeneuve‘s possible next film project- “Nuclear War: A Scenario” – the usual suspects dropped the Lisan al Giab news. Before we dive into “Messiah,” let’s look at what this other project is. Based on a Pulitzer Prize finalist non-fiction novel by Annie Jacobsen, “Nuclear War: A Scenario” explores a “ticking-clock scenario about what would happen in the event of a nuclear war, based on dozens of exclusive new interviews with military and civilian experts who built the weapons and have been privy to the response plans and have been responsible for those decisions should they have needed to be made.”

It only released in March, and already, the bidding wars for the film rights were high. Legendary ultimately came out on top. Could this be Villeneuve’s “Oppenheimer?”

Okay, But, “Messiah”-

It’s hard to get into the meat of Frank Herbert‘s second “Dune” novel without spoiling massive elements of it. You should know, it absolutely brings home the absolute power corrupts absolutely ideals of Orwell. Paul as the Kwisatz Haderach has turned into…something terrible. A jihad- a religious war- has spread from Arrakis in Muad Dib’s name. With it comes death, destruction, and political intrigue the likes of which even God has never seen. Herbert’s goal was never for Paul to be the true hero, and “Messiah” really brings that idea home.

Back in January, Villeneuve confirmed the script for “Messiah” was “being written right now.” He also told Time Magazine “the screenplay is almost finished but it is not finished. It will take a little time … There’s a dream of making a third movie … it would make absolute sense to me.”

Despite there being four more books (for a total of 6) in the original “Dune” series, Villeneuve says “’Dune Messiah’ should be the last ‘Dune’ movie for me.”

We’ll let you know about this and other news.