'DUNE' First Look Features Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides
It’s hard to believe somewhere in this crazy journey we’ll be ‘breaking bread’ over a bowl of popcorn under the dim lights of our local neighborhood theater watching DUNE.
Until we do, let’s rejoice in our first look at Timothée Chalamet courtesy of Vanity Fair’s two-part preview of Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s epic novel DUNE!
Part I, which you can read here, features a brief interview along with our first glimpse of Chalamet's Paul Atreides - son of a noble family whose sands are the only source of a powerful drug called “the spice” - walking along shores of his oceanic homeland of Caladan.
While the photo conveys a moment of peace and serenity, Chalamet says it's a moment where Paul is about to embark on a true Anti-hero’s journey amidst a looming cloud of chaos, treachery, and death.
The immediately appealing thing about Paul was the fact that in a story of such detail and scale and world-building, the protagonist is on an anti-hero’s-journey of sorts,” Chalamet tells Vanity Fair. “He thinks he’s going to be sort of a young general studying his father and his leadership of a fighting force before he comes of age, hopefully a decade later, or something like that.
Not pictured in Vanity Fair’s first look photo are Gurney Halleck (played by Josh Brolin) and Paul’s parents, Duke Leto and Lady Jessica Atreides (played by Oscar Isaac and Rebecca Ferguson) who are also set to board the transport ships bound for the scorching planet of Arrakis.
Villeneuve's two-part relaunch tells the futuristic tale of noble houses grappling for control of a hostile planet containing the universe’s only repository of a highly valuable spice. After the once-powerful House Atreides is brought down in a traitorous plot by rival House Harkonnen, Paul and his mother Jessica embark on a journey to bring fruition to humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream.
Vanity Fair's two-part cover story will likely yield additional first look photos along with hopeful interviews of Denis Villeneuve’s gorgeous cast - including Jason Momoa as loyal swordmaster Duncan Idaho, Javier Bardem as leader of the Arrakis Fremen tribe, Stilgar; Zendaya will play Chani, a fearless Fremen warrior who fights alongside Stilgar and becomes the eventual love interest to Paul Atreides. They’ll be joined by Stellan Skarsgard, Charlotte Rampling, and Dave Bautista.
Dune is set to hit theaters on December 18.
