Why “Dune” maestro Denis Villeneuve🇨🇦 felt like a “tourist” in Hollywood
“I felt like a tourist in the room”: How #Dune filmmaker 𝗗𝗲𝗻𝗶𝘀 𝗩𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘂𝘃𝗲 🇨🇦 went from outsider to Hollywood A-lister.
Peter Howell
Movie Critic
Denis Villeneuve’s blockbuster sci-fi sequel “Dune: Part Two” is expected to gross upwards of $80 million (U.S.) in North American theatres this weekend, nearly twice the debut take of “Dune” in 2021. That would make it the year’s biggest film opening to date.
The quiet Quebec writer/director is delighted, and so are movie exhibitors and moviegoers. But what excites this lifelong film buff more are the many Hollywood friendships and connections he’s made since his 2010 breakthrough with the Oscar-nominated family drama “Incendies,” his fourth feature. (The first “Dune” received 10 Oscar noms, winning six.)
“For many years, I felt like a tourist in the room, trying to be invisible and having fun with the toys, and eating as much as I could of the buffet,” a hoarse-sounding Villeneuve said of his early days in Hollywood. He was speaking over Zoom from Montreal on Thursday, where “Dune 2” had its rapturous Canadian premiere the night before.
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(This story was originally published in the Toronto Star.)