Denis Villeneuve has taken issue with the Academy Awards‘ decision to make Hans Zimmer‘s Dune: Part Two score ineligible.
The 3x Oscar nominee commented on the sequel’s disqualification from the Best Original Score category after the Academy determined it featured too much music from Villeneuve’s original 2021 adaptation of Frank Herbert‘s novel.
“I am absolutely against the decision of the Academy to exclude Hans, frankly, because I feel like his score is one of the best scores of the year,” said Villeneuve, according to SlashFilm. “I don’t use the word genius often, but Hans is one.”
He explained that the sequel’s soundtrack is “rooted in Part One, of course, because there is a continuity,” with the two films representing “one big movie that is cut in half.”
“I’m not here to complain,” joked Villeneuve, adding: “The soundtrack is really a continuity of Part One.”
Hans Zimmer
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
Despite his exclusion this time around, Zimmer was nominated for Best Original Score at Sunday’s 82nd Golden Globes. He previously won the Best Original Score Oscar for the first Dune.
After David Lynch adapted Herbert’s Dune for his 1984 space opera, Villeneuve returned to the source material for his adaptation Dune (2021) and last year’s Dune: Part Two. The first film took home six Oscars, with both films earning a combined $1.12 billion globally.
The franchise has spawned the prequel series Dune: Prophecy, which recently debuted, with new episodes airing Sundays at 9pm ET/PT on HBO and streaming on Max.
Villeneuve told Deadline in November that he plans to start filming the film franchise’s third installment, based on Herbert’s ’69 novel Dune Messiah, in late 2025 or 2026.