Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya’s latest film together, Dune, is based on Frank Herbert’s 1965 fictional novel of the same name, and is set against some of the Middle East’s most magnificent backdrops.
The narrative of the forthcoming movie, starring the likes of Oscar Isaac, Jason Momoa and Rebecca Ferguson, amongst others, is set on Arrakis – an uninhabitable fictional planet.
Zendaya stars as Chani, a “Freman” woman, a native of Arrakis, and Timothee Chalamet plays the protagonist, who spoke to Variety magazine about shooting in the Middle East, “It was really surreal,” he said. “There are these Goliath landscapes, which you may imagine existing on planets in our universe, but not on Earth. When you’re shooting in the desert in Jordan, the spirituality of the location, I’ll ruin it with my words, so I won’t even try, but you’re really in it. I think I did two scenes on a green screen. I think it’s literally two scenes I did on a green screen. Besides that, everything else was practical.”
Directed by Denis Villeneuve, the scenes of the fictional planet of Arrakis were set against Jordan’s Wadi Rum and the Abu Dhabi desert in the early hours to catch the stunning sunrises on camera. Chalamet also recalled his experience of working in the Middle Eastern summer, saying, “I remember going out of my room at 2am, and it being probably 100 degrees.”
Dune is expected to be released in December 2020.
