Gareth Edwards may direct Dune: Part 4
Jurassic World Rebirth boss to tackle the thorny Children of Dune?
Dune: Part 3, Messiah, may still be a ways off but there’s already chatter about who is in line to direct Dune: Part 4. And it’s not Denis Villeneuve.
Gareth Edwards is in contention for the director’s role in the fourth film in the series, according to Hollywood rumour merchant Daniel Richtman, as reported by ComicBookMovie.
We already had a good sense Villeneuve would not hang in there for the fourth film in the series, having already made it clear he felt the first two films were intended to stand as a complete work. It apparently took some persuading to get him to even helm Dune: Messiah.
Richtman has not gone as far as suggesting Edwards is already in talks with the studio to direct, but he does at least seem a sensible choice for the job.
Edwards is a master at putting the money spent on a film up on the screen, with epic VFX that often don't cost a fortune.
The $80 million spent on The Creator is still a huge amount of money, but the film can easily go toe-to-toe with a movie that cost twice as much in terms of pure visual spectacle.
His debut, Monsters, cost $500,000 and yet still manages to have an epic sense of scope and scale.
Edwards’s next big release is Jurassic World Rebirth, due in cinemas in July. And that is definitely not being made on a shoestring, with a reported production budget of $265 million.
When is Dune: Part 3 out?
Dune: Part 3, known as Dune: Messiah, is reportedly set to start filming in June — earlier than previously expected. December 2026 is the earliest expected cinema release date for the film.
It’s no great surprise the Hollywood money folks might be excited about the prospect of a continuing Dune series. The first film made $410 million despite releasing in a Covid-sapped 2021, while Part Two made $714 million and also roughly matched the first for quality and vision.
Dune fans will know the road might get rockier from here, though.
The first two Dune films are based on the original 1965 novel, Frank Herbert's Dune. The second book, Dune: Messiah, is much less obviously ideal content for a sci-fi action epic than the first.
Then again, Denis Villeneuve is yet to produce a feature film that could conceivably be called a dud.
Since the release of Dune: Part Two we’ve also been graced by Dune: Prophecy, a six-part series set thousands of years before the action of Dune, charting the formation of the Bene Gesserit. It received mixed reviews.