Yahoo Lifestyle Denis Villeneuve Says ‘I Don’t Care’ if Quentin Tarantino Refuses to Watch ‘Dune,’ but ‘What I Did Was Not a Remake … I See This as an Original’
Denis Villeneuve recently participated in a Q&A with students at Concordia University’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema in Montreal, Quebec (via Montreal Gazette) and brushed off Quentin Tarantino’s viral comments about refusing to watch “Dune” and “Dune: Part Two.” The “Pulp Fiction” Oscar winner said he’s not interested in remakes and didn’t need to watch Villeneuve’s films because he was already familiar with the “Dune” story from seeing David Lynch’s previous adaptation.
“I don’t care,” Villeneuve said as the “whole room erupted in laughter,” as reported by the Gazette. “It’s true. I agree with him that I don’t like this idea of recycling and bringing back old ideas. But where I disagree is that what I did was not a remake. It’s an adaptation of the book. I see this as an original.”
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Villeneuve added, “But we are very different human beings.”
Tarantino was a guest on “The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast” earlier this month when he was asked about whether or not “Dune: Part Two” was the best movie of the year as many have proclaimed. He didn’t have an answer because he’s not going to watch it.
“I saw [David Lynch’s] ‘Dune’ a couple of times. I don’t need to see that story again,” Tarantino said about his lack of interest in Villeneuve’s adaptations. “I don’t need to see spice worms. I don’t need to see a movie that says the word ‘spice’ so dramatically.”
“It’s one after another of this remake and that remake,” Tarantino explained. “People ask have you seen ‘Dune’? Have you seen ‘Ripley?’ Have you seen ‘Shōgun’?” And I’m like no, no, no, no. There’s six or seven Ripley books. If you do one again, why are you doing the same one that they’ve done twice already? I’ve seen that story twice before, and I didn’t really like it in either version, so I’m not really interested in seeing it a third time. If you did another story, that would be interesting enough to give it a shot anyway.”
Villeneuve has been making the press rounds in recent weeks as the Oscar campaign for “Dune: Part Two” heats up. Tarantino may not be watching, but other high-profile directors such as Christopher Nolan and Steven Spielberg have already given Villeneuve praise for his “Dune” sequel.
“Let me start by saying there are filmmakers who are the builders of worlds,” Spielberg told Villeneuve during a conversation at the Directors Guild of America in March. “It’s not a long list and we know who a lot of them are. Starting with [Georges] Méliès and Disney and Kubrick, George Lucas. Ray Harryhausen I include in that list. Fellini built his own worlds. Tim Burton. Obviously Wes Anderson, Peter Jackson, James Cameron, Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott, Guillermo del Toro. The list goes on but it’s not that long of a list, and I deeply, fervently believe that you are one of its newest members.”
Spielberg went on to tell Villeneuve that “you have made one of the most brilliant science-fiction films I’ve ever seen.”
Head over to the Montreal Gazette’s website to read more from Villeneuve’s discussion at Concordia University.
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