Exclusive: Dune Director Offered A DC Superhero Movie
We've exclusively learned that the Dune director is in talks with DC for a major project.
This article is more than 2 years old
Denis Villeneuve is the director responsible for Arrival and Blade Runner 2049. Soon, we’ll be seeing his take on the new adaptation of Dune. The sci-fi movie has an impressive and large cast. The film has been highly-anticipated and has suffered a delayed release due to the pandemic. Instead of twiddling his thumbs while waiting for audiences to finally see Dune, the director is now considering his next projects. We’ve exclusively learned from our trusted and proven inside sources that one of those projects may be for DC. Currently, Denis Villeneuve is in talks with Warner Bros about a future superhero project, something on the scale of a New Gods story.
Denis Villeneuve already has a relationship with the studio, thanks to his work on projects like Dune. Carrying that forward into a new DC project may make sense for him. He also has experience with franchises, adapting works from source material, and making big-budget movies full of special effects. This makes him a natural next move for Warner Bros. While we have learned that they’ve discussed the idea of New Gods or something on that scale with the filmmaker, we haven’t learned what his own inspirations may be for a DC film. It seems likely that a New Gods project proposed by the studio would be intended to be part of the DC Extended Universe, meaning the director could add to that world we’ve seen in films by directors like Zack Snyder, but the Dune director may have other ideas in mind.
A New Gods project would make a lot of sense. From 2018 up until early 2021, there was a DC project in the works with Ava DuVernay. It was announced as canceled at the same time James Wan’s The Trench was no longer in the works. While Wan’s Aquaman spinoff can probably disappear without much trouble, bringing a New Gods project to DC would be a great thing for their cinematic universe. In the DC comics, the New Gods are plentiful and wide scaling. In the movies, they were mentioned in Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and appeared via Steppenwolf in Justice League, with the infamous character Darkseid in the Snyder Cut. Snyder had intended for the New Gods to be in the Justice League sequels, meaning the groundwork is all there for the Dune director to come in and make something awesome, if he dares.
Director James Gunn, responsible for The Suicide Squad, has been singing DC’s praises lately. That may help tempt other directors into the fold. The Dune director already knows what it’s like working for Warner Bros, which may also tempt him further. The biggest question we have no answers to is how inspired by superheroes Denis Villeneuve will feel. Does the wide opportunity appeal to him? Is he one of the Hollywood types just not into capes? We’ll be watching for more news to come in on how his talks go with the studio and whether this opportunity calls to him.
