Dune - Empire Magazine Still Image Analysis
One month later after the first release of images. One month closer to the release to the movie. There has now been an additional image released, courtesy of Empire Magazine:
This is most likely earlier on in the movie, as this is the first time Paul is enthralled by the great wide desert:
It’s Paul’s first contact with the deep desert, where he’s mesmerised by it. He has a strange feeling of being home. There’s a lot of action at this specific moment, and [it’s] one of the scenes in the movie that I’m starting to get pretty proud of. — Denis Villeneuve (Director)
The book readers have a good idea on what this particular action scene is. Small spoilers incoming: This is likely to be when Paul Atreides, Leto Atreides, Liet Kynes, Gurney Halleck and other members of the Atreides household travel to the deep desert to investigate a spice processing facility. However, they soon discover that a sandworm is on their way and thus attempt to rescue everyone on board the mobile facility.
Paul, crushed into a corner beside a window, stared down at the silent machine on the sand. The wormsign had broken off about four hundred meters from the crawler. And now, there appeared to be turbulence in the sand around the factory.
The sandworm was getting close and closer:
“The worm is now beneath the crawler,” Kynes said. “You are about to witness a thing few have seen.”
And then, they saw it:
Then they saw it! A wide hole emerged from the sand. Sunlight flashed from glistening white spokes within it. The hole’s diameter was at least twice the length of the crawler, Paul estimated. He watched as the machine slid into that opening in a billow of dust and sand. The hole pulled back.
In terms of the image itself, it is unclear if this was shot in the actual desert or with a green-screen. The background does make it appear to have been in a studio, although there have been filming in the deserts of Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
There is a reasonable chance that these above images of ornithopters, the vehicle in question, were filmed in Hungary. At the same time, there have been fast paced scenes in the desert itself:
The Dune cast includes Timothee Chalamet (The King, Little Women), Oscar Isaac (Star Wars Episodes 7–9), Rebecca Ferguson (The White Queen, Mission Impossible 5 & 6), Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men, Pirates of the Caribbean 5), Jason Momoa (Aquaman & Game of Thrones) and Zendaya (Spiderman: Homecoming) and is directed by Denis Villeneuve (Arrival and Bladerunner 2049). The movie will cover the first half of the original and has high expectations. It is due to be released on 18th December 2020.
