DUNE Casting News: The Spice Flows for Bautista and Skarsgård
Dave Bautista and Stellan Skarsgård have reportedly joined the cast of the upcoming reboot of Dune. They join Timothee Chalamet and Rebecca Ferguson.
Skarsgård will play the villain, Baron Harkonnen, and Bautista is reported to be playing Harkonnen’s nephew.
The classic Frank Herbert novel tells the story of young Paul Atreides (Chalamet), who escapes into the deserts of the planet Arrakis after the assassination of his father. The planet’s main export, a rare spice drug, imbues Paul with enhanced mental abilities that leads the nomadic tribes to follow him as their messiah in a revolt to overthrow the empire. The Harkonnen family, once rulers of Arrakis, are mortal enemies of the Atreides clan and plot with the emperor to destroy them.
The new adaptation from Legendary Pictures will reunite Bautista with his Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve, who will also helm the new Dune. The production company acquired the television and film rights to the story universe in a 2016 deal with the Herbert estate.
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The project will be produced by Villeneuve, Mary Parent, and Cale Boyter. Brian Herbert — who has continued the Dune saga with Kevin J. Anderson — will executive producer along with Byron Merritt, Thomas Tull, and Kim Herbert. Villeneuve wrote the script with Eric Roth and Jon Spaiths.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film is set to begin shooting this spring in Budapest and Jordan.
