‘Dune: Part Three,’ Director Denis Villeneuve
Warner Bros. has set Villeneuve’s trilogy-closing chaptyer for release on December 18, head-to-head with Marvel-Disney’s Avengers: Doomsday, a clash some have already dubbed “Dunesday.”
A December tentpole of Dune‘s scale hardly needs a festival, but Villeneuve and Venice have history. The director premiered Arrival in competition in 2016 and launched Dune: Part One out of competition on the Lido in 2021.
Shot on 65mm film and IMAX formats, largely in Budapest, the Dune Messiah adaptation wrapped in November 2025, plenty of time for the project’s prodigious VFX to be ready by September.
Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet’s emperor Paul faces the conspiracies of Frank Herbert’s follow-up novel alongside Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Jason Momoa, Rebecca Ferguson and Javier Bardem, with Robert Pattinson joining the saga, reportedly as shape-shifting villain Scytale.
Dune: Part Two, released in March 2024, skipped the festivals route entirely, but the conclusion may benefit from Lido global exposure
