Dune director Denis Villeneuve has revealed that Paul’s visions were inspired primarily by a bad drug trip he experienced before the film began production.
Denis Villeneuve’s Dune was one of 2021’s few box-office success stories. While it wasn’t Warner Bros’ biggest film of the year, it did manage to earn well over $400M worldwide and a sequel was quickly confirmed. Since then, the director has been hard at work on the film, refining the script and adding new cast members. However, the director isn’t quite done telling stories about the first film.
In Dune, the main character, Paul Atreides, experiences several visions after being exposed to raw Spice. Some of the visions come true while some do not and often play out as something akin to a drug trip. As Denis Villeneuve tells it that was exactly the inspiration for it.
While with The Directors Guild Of America, Denis Villeneuve revealed that Paul’s visions were inspired by a bad drug trip he had sometime before production:
“The truth is that one thing that helped me tremendously to direct Timothée [Chalamet] is, my son had cooked a banana cake a few months before we shot the movie, and the banana cake was very ‘spicy’ and I had the worst bad trip of my life. But it tremendously helped me, it sounds stupid, but it’s good to experience things yourself sometimes. That bad trip, on marijuana, deeply helped me to direct Timothée in the visions, to explain to him the state I was looking for. And, strangely, when I mentioned the banana cake experience to Timothee, he got it! Here’s the truth. Don’t try this!”
You can see the full video below:
Here is the synopsis for Dune:
Set in the distant future, Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides whose family accepts control of the desert planet Arrakis. As the only producer of a highly valuable resource, control of Arrakis is highly contested among the noble families. After Paul and his family are betrayed, the story explores themes of politics, religion, and man’s relationship to nature as Paul leads a rebellion to restore his family’s control of Arrakis.
Denis Villeneuve directed Dune from a script he co-wrote with Eric Roth and Jon Spaihts. The film stars Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Dave Bautista, Stellan Skarsgard, Charlotte Rampling, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa, Javier Bardem, and David Dastmalchian.
Dune is now available on home media formats, with Part Two hitting theaters on October 20, 2023. Stay tuned for all the latest news on the upcoming film and be sure to subscribe to Heroic Hollywood’s YouTube channel for more original video content.
Source: YouTube
