When it comes to “Dune: Part Three,” which hits theaters in December, Timothée Chalamet has been silent. However, Chalamet shared some new information that influenced his role of Paul Atreides in Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi trilogy with Matthew McConaughey during Variety and CNN’s town hall event at the University of Texas at Austin.
“What I think you see at the end of the second one, and across the third one, is yourself in ‘Interstellar’ and Heath Ledger in ‘The Dark Knight’ and Marlon Brando in ‘Apocalypse Now’ and stuff like that.” He said to McConaughey, before taking a slight detour. “Actually, wait, let me rephrase all of that! Hold up. I cannot put myself in that same boat,” he said, laughing. “Let’s just say, it’s these big movies where you could sneak in something. A curveball.”
Chalamet was also inspired by Oscar Isaac, who portrayed Paul’s father Leto Atreides in the original “Dune” movie.
“He treated it in a Shakespearean way — to play it heightened and not really care about it being heightened,” Chalamet said. ” The first ‘Dune’ film, “I felt kind of thrown by the futurism,” Chalamet said. “I was coming off ‘Beautiful Boy’ and ‘Call Me by Your Name,’ and movies that were a lot more naturalistic, and this was a huge movie, so I felt intimidated. But especially on this third one, all the great shit you see on screen is from freedom of movement and freedom of choice. And with Denis, we really had a good rhythm. It’s the eeriest one. It’s a big swing.”
Chalamet discussed sci-fi technologies but didn’t elaborate on the upcoming movie’s premise.
“On the first ‘Dune,’ we had an ornithopter sequence that I got a chance to do again in the third, but this time I was way more geared up,” he added. “On ‘Dune 3,’ as opposed to the first movie, I came out early and studied the control panel — all sorts of hieroglyphics and things that aren’t tethered to reality. I wanted to know what each button did, and invent a dynamic for myself with it.”
