Dune 2: Denis Villeneuve sequel aiming to debut at a fall festival

Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part 2 won’t be finished in time for a Venice premiere like the first film, but should still play a fall festival.

Warner Bros has had a lot of luck with one particular fall festival route – a world premiere at Venice followed by a North American premiere at TIFF. Indeed, this particular route paid off, big time, for A Star is Born, Joker and Dune, but it looks like a Venice bow for Dune: Part 2 isn’t in the cards. As Deadline explains, the film won’t be ready to premiere on the Lido at the end of August due to the complicated VFX work. The film is still on track to meet its early November global launch, and Deadline says the studio still hopes for a fall festival bow.

If the studio wants a high-profile launch, they only have two options, the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. TIFF runs from September 7th to the 7th, just a few weeks after Venice, so it seems unlikely the film will be able to make this festival, although it’s still possible. A TIFF bow would make sense for Dune: Part 2, given that the director, Denis Villeneuve, is Canadian and has brought many of his films to TIFF, including Prisoners, Sicario, Enemy, Arrival and, of course, Dune. It would be more unusual not for him to hit TIFF, so I imagine the film will premiere there if it’s at all possible. If not, NYFF remains a possibility, and indeed it would be quite a coup for the festival, as the sequel is one of the year’s most anticipated movies.

Dune: Part 2 sees the return of the first film’s sprawling cast (those that survived the first film anyway), which includes Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Dave Bautista, Stellan Skarsgard, Javier Bardem and more. They’re joined by a whole bunch of extra A-listers, including Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken (yeah!) and Austin Butler, who will play the iconic bad guy once played by Sting, Feyd-Rautha.

Dune: Part 2 is set to hit theaters on November 3rd.