Dune Director Denis Villeneuve Shares Heartfelt Tribute To David Lynch After His Death

On January 15, 2025, the world learned that the groundbreaking and iconoclastic filmmaker David Lynch passed away at the age of 78 — and regardless of Lynch’s public struggles together with his well being lately, it was nonetheless surprising {that a} man whose final title actually turned an adjective for “bizarre, bonkers stuff in movie and TV” had left this world. Unsurprisingly, the leisure trade and the complete world banded collectively to mourn the loss and have a good time Lynch’s unbelievable physique of labor … and in a latest panel, ScreenRant heard director Denis Villeneuve weigh in on Lynch’s passing on the Saturn Awards.

“Cinema might be the closest artform, closest to goals, woke up goals,” Villeneuve started. “And David Lynch was positively the grasp, the one who introduced us closest to this dream state.” He expressed his honest want of desirous to have had the prospect to fulfill him, however manufacturing on the “Dune” motion pictures saved the meet-up from occurring. He continued, “I used to be wishing and dreaming to fulfill him as soon as it might be completed simply to, to pay homage to him.”

As Villeneuve famous, the surprising connection between the 2 acclaimed administrators is that each have directed diversifications of Frank Herbert’s “Dune” books, although, with all due respect to Lynch’s legacy and work, Villeneuve’s imaginative and prescient is extra profitable on many ranges. (At the least, it carried out effectively critically and commercially, whereas Lynch’s did not in both class.) From there, Villeneuve shared his regrets that Lynch had a notoriously troublesome time adapting Herbert’s work whereas additionally noting that the wrestle could have introduced us a few of the late creator’s greatest work.

When David Lynch directed his model of “Dune” starring Kyle MacLachlan in 1984, he said he “died two times” during filming as a result of he was pressured to bow all the way down to studio calls for and did not get ultimate lower. The entire thing is much more difficult than that, and smarter individuals than I — together with a lot of my colleagues right here at /Movie! — have gotten into the nitty-gritty of Lynch’s “Dune” issues, however the level right here is that Denis Villeneuve, who has now made two patently wonderful (if much less Lynchian) “Dune” movies, needs that the expertise had been higher, but in addition conceded that these two non-literal deaths led to some unbelievable motion pictures. “I am very unhappy that he didn’t have a pleasant expertise together with his personal adaptation,” Villeneuve additionally stated on the Saturn Awards. 

“On the similar time, from my understanding, the ache he endured throughout making his personal model of ‘Dune’ delivered to us ‘Blue Velvet,’ after which ‘Wild at Coronary heart’ and all of the … there was an power that got here out of that. So, I do not know, it is very deeply unhappy that he left us. It is like, you realize, there’s some filmmakers that when he left, it is like a planet left the photo voltaic system. It is actually like he was his personal planet. However there’s some consolation understanding that he was nonetheless completely alive, completely inventive, that he wished to do one other challenge. He is nonetheless right here. Anyway, I am an enormous fan. Sure.”

Earlier than David Lynch handed away, it needs to be stated that the 2 administrators did make feedback about how they each directed “Dune” — and so they weren’t practically as sentimental as Denis Villeneuve’s feedback within the wake of Lynch’s dying. In 2023, Lynch informed French outlet Cahiers du Cinema (by way of World of Reel) that he would by no means, ever watch Villeneuve’s model of “Dune,” fairly clearly saying, “I’ll by no means watch it, and I do not even need you to inform me about it, ever.” (The person hardly ever minced phrases.) So what did Villeneuve say?

Effectively, in early 2024, Villeneuve reflected on Lynch’s take on the “Dune” novels throughout an interview on NPR’s program Contemporary Air (by way of The Wrap), saying that he noticed the movie when it got here out as a youngster and it simply did not meet his expectations. “I used to be very excited once I discovered that the guide can be delivered to the display,” Villeneuve stated on the time. “I bear in mind watching the film and being very mesmerized and impressed by how David Lynch approached it. I used to be destabilized by a few of his decisions. David Lynch has a really robust identification as a filmmaker, in fact, and it bled into the … it is a implausible interpretation of the guide. However there have been some decisions that have been made that was very distant from my sensibility.”

There was by no means any actual beef between the 2 administrators so far as anybody is aware of, however in any case, you may watch each of their “Dune” motion pictures now. Lynch’s 1984 model and Villeneuve’s two motion pictures, “Dune” and “Dune: Half Two,” are all accessible to stream on Max.

On January 15, 2025, the world learned that the groundbreaking and iconoclastic filmmaker David Lynch passed away at the age of 78 — and regardless of Lynch’s public struggles together with his well being lately, it was nonetheless surprising {that a} man whose final title actually turned an adjective for “bizarre, bonkers stuff in movie and TV” had left this world. Unsurprisingly, the leisure trade and the complete world banded collectively to mourn the loss and have a good time Lynch’s unbelievable physique of labor … and in a latest panel, ScreenRant heard director Denis Villeneuve weigh in on Lynch’s passing on the Saturn Awards.

“Cinema might be the closest artform, closest to goals, woke up goals,” Villeneuve started. “And David Lynch was positively the grasp, the one who introduced us closest to this dream state.” He expressed his honest want of desirous to have had the prospect to fulfill him, however manufacturing on the “Dune” motion pictures saved the meet-up from occurring. He continued, “I used to be wishing and dreaming to fulfill him as soon as it might be completed simply to, to pay homage to him.”

As Villeneuve famous, the surprising connection between the 2 acclaimed administrators is that each have directed diversifications of Frank Herbert’s “Dune” books, although, with all due respect to Lynch’s legacy and work, Villeneuve’s imaginative and prescient is extra profitable on many ranges. (At the least, it carried out effectively critically and commercially, whereas Lynch’s did not in both class.) From there, Villeneuve shared his regrets that Lynch had a notoriously troublesome time adapting Herbert’s work whereas additionally noting that the wrestle could have introduced us a few of the late creator’s greatest work.

When David Lynch directed his model of “Dune” starring Kyle MacLachlan in 1984, he said he “died two times” during filming as a result of he was pressured to bow all the way down to studio calls for and did not get ultimate lower. The entire thing is much more difficult than that, and smarter individuals than I — together with a lot of my colleagues right here at /Movie! — have gotten into the nitty-gritty of Lynch’s “Dune” issues, however the level right here is that Denis Villeneuve, who has now made two patently wonderful (if much less Lynchian) “Dune” movies, needs that the expertise had been higher, but in addition conceded that these two non-literal deaths led to some unbelievable motion pictures. “I am very unhappy that he didn’t have a pleasant expertise together with his personal adaptation,” Villeneuve additionally stated on the Saturn Awards. 

“On the similar time, from my understanding, the ache he endured throughout making his personal model of ‘Dune’ delivered to us ‘Blue Velvet,’ after which ‘Wild at Coronary heart’ and all of the … there was an power that got here out of that. So, I do not know, it is very deeply unhappy that he left us. It is like, you realize, there’s some filmmakers that when he left, it is like a planet left the photo voltaic system. It is actually like he was his personal planet. However there’s some consolation understanding that he was nonetheless completely alive, completely inventive, that he wished to do one other challenge. He is nonetheless right here. Anyway, I am an enormous fan. Sure.”

Earlier than David Lynch handed away, it needs to be stated that the 2 administrators did make feedback about how they each directed “Dune” — and so they weren’t practically as sentimental as Denis Villeneuve’s feedback within the wake of Lynch’s dying. In 2023, Lynch informed French outlet Cahiers du Cinema (by way of World of Reel) that he would by no means, ever watch Villeneuve’s model of “Dune,” fairly clearly saying, “I’ll by no means watch it, and I do not even need you to inform me about it, ever.” (The person hardly ever minced phrases.) So what did Villeneuve say?

Effectively, in early 2024, Villeneuve reflected on Lynch’s take on the “Dune” novels throughout an interview on NPR’s program Contemporary Air (by way of The Wrap), saying that he noticed the movie when it got here out as a youngster and it simply did not meet his expectations. “I used to be very excited once I discovered that the guide can be delivered to the display,” Villeneuve stated on the time. “I bear in mind watching the film and being very mesmerized and impressed by how David Lynch approached it. I used to be destabilized by a few of his decisions. David Lynch has a really robust identification as a filmmaker, in fact, and it bled into the … it is a implausible interpretation of the guide. However there have been some decisions that have been made that was very distant from my sensibility.”

There was by no means any actual beef between the 2 administrators so far as anybody is aware of, however in any case, you may watch each of their “Dune” motion pictures now. Lynch’s 1984 model and Villeneuve’s two motion pictures, “Dune” and “Dune: Half Two,” are all accessible to stream on Max.