Dune director Denis Villeneuve has revealed he has no plans to release any deleted scenes from his sci-fi two-parter, even though the original cuts were much longer.
The runtime for Dune: Part 2 stands at 2 hours 46 minutes (making it 10 minutes longer than the first film), but Villeneuve has admitted he had to make some “painful” editing choices to avoid the feature being as colossal in size as a sandworm and sadly, those hoping to see an extended director’s cut are out of luck.
I kill darlings, and it’s painful for me.
“I’m a strong believer that when it’s not in the movie, it’s dead,” Villeneuve told Collider. “Sometimes I remove shots and I say, ‘I cannot believe I’m cutting this out. I feel like a samurai opening my gut. It’s painful, so I cannot go back after that and create a Frankenstein and try to reanimate things that I killed. It’s too painful. When it’s dead, it’s dead, and it’s dead for a reason. But yes, it is a painful project, but it is my job. The movie prevails. I’m very severe in the editing room. I’m not thinking about my ego, I’m thinking about the movie… I kill darlings, and it’s painful for me.”
While this news will likely incite a Stilgar-style shocked reaction from Dune fans, Villeneuve said he always puts careful consideration into the editing process and thinks about the experience and feelings the audience will have while watching the feature but ultimately finds that the story ends up dictating the length of it.
“I’ve made movies in my life that were 75 minutes, and this one is two hours, 45 [minutes], I think,” he said. “It’s not the runtime, it’s about the storytelling, and I felt that I wanted to create a momentum. I wanted an energy in the movie that I was looking for that excited me, and I thought that was the perfect runtime.”
Dune: Part 2 adapts the second half of Frank Herbert’s seminal sci-fi novel, but Villeneuve’s sequel stays loyal to the book by changing it and cutting characters from the story, including those he “absolutely loves,” such as Stephen McKinley Henderson’s Thufir Hawat, who didn’t fit in with the Bene Gesserit adaptation.
A scene starring Tim Blake Nelson also ended up on the cutting room floor, leaving the actor “heartbroken,” though he hopes to work with Villeneueve again on a future project. Villeneueve has already said he wants to make a Dune: Part 3 based on Dune Messiah, and the script for that film was near-finished in December.
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on X/Twitter @AdeleAnkers.
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