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For “Dune: Part Two,” Denis Villeneuve delved deep into the Arabian desert and spent nearly a month filming in Abu Dhabi’s Liwa Oasis, which provided a substantial portion of the scenery for the desert planet Arrakis, home of the monstrous sandworms. .
Villeneuve praised the location and services provided by the Abu Dhabi Film Commission and UAE-based production services company Epic Films in a behind-the-scenes promotional video, to which Variety you have been given exclusive access.
“’Dune’ is about the relationship between humans and nature,” says Villeneuve in the promo that also includes testimonials from Zendaya, Javier Bardem, Rebecca Ferguson and cinematographer Greig Fraser, among others.
“For me it was important to bring that nature to the screen,” adds the director, so that the audience believes it “if they feel that there is something that feels real, that feels tactile.”
So, after filming for five days in the Abu Dhabi desert for the first installment of “Dune,” Villeneuve and the entire cast and crew returned for “Dune: Part Two” and spent 27 days amid the towering dunes of Liwa, some of which are more than 600 feet high, on the edge of Rub’ Al Khali, the largest uninterrupted stretch of desert in the world.
“We had an 18-mile road network that took us to different locations where we had tents, catering, construction cranes, telehandlers and everything,” says executive producer Tanya Lapointe.
“It was a huge effort, but it was spectacular,” adds Lapointe, who also worked as second unit director on “Dune: Part Two.”
Legendary Pictures also benefited from the Abu Dhabi Film Commission’s (ADFC) generous 30% cash reimbursement on production expenses within the Emirate.
For production professionals on site, “the main challenge for ‘Dune: Part Two’ was logistics,” said line producer Robbie McAree, head of United Arab Emirates-based Epic Films, who worked on both films. from “Dune”. Variety in an interview about various aspects of the Abu Dhabi side of the production.
How challenging was filming “Dune: Part Two” from your perspective?
The main challenge this time was logistics. Denis didn’t want to film in the same locations we had in “Dune: Part One,” so we went deeper into the desert, closer to the Saudi border; It is a very large and empty border desert. We were going to look for new places because that was one of the main things about him: he didn’t want to use the same place.
How much local UAE crew and talent did you use?
We used about 300 local crews and contractors in the production, which is quite high compared to about 250 international crews that came. There were a lot of local professionals, which is great. And even in terms of background extras, I think there were 500, or close to 500, local extras that we used over the 27 days. So it was big in terms of local requirements. And we were able to work very closely not only with the team and talent, but also with other departments and suppliers closely affiliated with the Abu Dhabi Film Commission and the Abu Dhabi Municipality. We needed all this help, especially when we were basically building these roads through the desert.
In terms of accommodations, did top talent like Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya really sleep in the desert?
Where we were filming is obviously close to the desert resort Qasr Al Sarab Hotel, which is great. That was our point of service. It is an incredible, incredible hotel, with excellent facilities. So yes, they were all there. Of course, from the beginning we realized that we were going to have a challenge in terms of the number of beds. So I presented the idea to the producers (the international producers) of basically building a camp. At first they looked at me as if I had three heads. But it worked and was a great solution.