Chloe Zhao blown away by Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Dune’

Calling the film, which is set to have its world premiere on September 3 at the Venice Film Festival, as "incredible" and "cinematic", the "Nomadland" director hopes that people get to experience it in a theatre.

Oscar-winning filmmaker Chloe Zhao has seen an early theatrical screening of Denis Villeneuve’s highly-anticipated “Dune” adaptation and says she’s “blown away by the experience”. Calling the film, which is set to have its world premiere on September 3 at the Venice Film Festival, as “incredible” and “cinematic”, the “Nomadland” director hopes that people get to experience it in a theatre. According to IndieWire, Zhao revealed she had just come from an early screening of Villeneuve’s science-fiction epic during an interview for the September 2021 issue of Sight & Sound magazine. Zhao spoke enthusiastically about the film while replying to a question about the future of the cinematic medium. “I’m both really hopeful and also really terrified so it varies every day,” the director said while referencing “Dune”.

“It gives me hope that a filmmaker like Denis is able to really harness his vision and put together something that’s so incredible, so cinematic,” Zhao told the magazine. “I’m just blown away by the experience I had in that room. But I’m terrified about how many people are or aren’t going to have that experience like I did, in a theatre, and what that means for the future.” Warner Bros. is set to release “Dune” in theatres on October 22, and it will be available to stream starting the same day on HBO Max. Like Zhao, Villeneuve also wants the film to be experienced in theatres and had criticised Warner Bros’ decision to release the film both theatrically as well as on their streaming platform. “There is absolutely no love for cinema, nor for the audience here,” Villeneuve said in his essay in December last year.

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“Streaming can produce great content, but not movies of ‘Dune’s’ scope and scale. Warner Bros.’ decision means ‘Dune’ won’t have the chance to perform financially in order to be viable and piracy will ultimately triumph. Warner Bros. might just have killed the ‘Dune’ franchise. This one is for the fans. AT&T’s John Stankey said that the streaming horse left the barn. In truth, the horse left the barn for the slaughterhouse,” the director said.