Dune director Denis Villeneuve is attached to Legendary Entertainment’s answer to Oppenheimer. According to Deadline, the film production company plans to team with Villeneuve for an adaptation of Annie Jacobsen’s non-fiction book Nuclear War: A Scenario.
Villeneuve’s level of involvement in the movie is currently unknown, but he is expected to serve as a producer, writer, and/or director with longtime partner Tanya Lapointe. Deadline describes the film as a “chilling cautionary tale about where the world might be headed in an age of political volatility at a time when too many countries have nuclear capabilities.”
Nuclear War: A Scenario instantly became a New York Times bestseller following its release on March 26th. The book delves into a “ticking-clock scenario” of how the world would respond to a nuclear missile attack on the United States. Per the official description, it’s based on “exclusive new interviews with military and civilian experts who have built the weapons, have been privy to the response plans, and have been responsible for those decisions should they have needed to be made.”
Villeneuve would reportedly take on the adaptation after completing Dune: Messiah, the Dune: Part 2 sequel currently being developed with Legendary as a conclusion to the sci-fi trilogy. The filmmaker has spoken about doing the third Dune movie as far back as 2021, when he revealed plans to base it on Frank Herbert’s second book in the series.
News of the adaptation follows Oppenheimer’s big night at the Academy Awards, where it netted Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actor.
Following the box office success of Dune: Part Two ($630 million worldwide and counting), Legendary has scored another blockbuster with their latest MonsterVerse release, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. The kaiju romp has already raked in more than $200 million worldwide after just one week in theaters.