The Real Reason You'll Never See Dune 2's Deleted Scenes
For "Dune" director Denis Villeneuve, once a scene is cut, it should stay cut. The director doesn't even plan on including deleted scenes in the Blu-ray edition of his smash hit adaptation. In an interview with Collider shortly before "Dune: Part Two" was released, director Denis Villeneuve destroyed any hope that fans had of seeing additional footage of events in the deserts of Arrakis, the crowded urban centers on Giedi Prime, or any other area of Frank Herbert's sci-fi universe.
"I'm a strong believer that when it's not in the movie, it's dead," Villeneuve said. "I kill darlings, and it's painful for me." The original cut of "Dune" was over 4 hours long, while the final version is just over 2½ hours. Just like that, 90 minutes of sand-infused glory is gone forever.
Not everything that gets the ax is necessarily bad, either. "Sometimes I remove shots and I say, 'I cannot believe I'm cutting this out,'" Villeneuve elaborated. "I feel like a samurai opening my gut." Despite the difficulty, this is precisely what makes deleted scenes an unwelcome proposition for the director. "It's painful," he said, "so I cannot go back after that and create a Frankenstein and try to reanimate things that I killed. It's too painful. When it's dead, it's dead, and it's dead for a reason."
Deleted scenes and extended editions are a major part of the entertainment experience. Diehard fans of any franchise look forward to the opportunity to relish extra footage. They dig into the could-have-beens and consider the implications that any additional storytelling and its accompanying visuals and dialogue provide. While this is usually a positive, it doesn't always pay dividends, and Villeneuve may be wise to cut off hope of new footage in the future.
The cult of the deleted scene is hit and miss
In some cases, the concept of the deleted scene goes over very well. Peacock, for instance, has made a habit of re-releasing superfan episodes of "The Office" with plenty of new tidbits to look out for.
Peter Jackson is also famous for re-releasing the "Lord of the Rings" films with hours of new footage. All told, the extended version runtime total of the trio of movies is 12 hours and 6 minutes — that's nearly 3 hours of never-before-seen scenes. (And fans still want an even longer Mithril edition.) Jackson provides so much extra material that the extended editions take on a new life of their own. Thanks to the extra footage, the narratives of some of the movies, like "The Two Towers," become significantly easier to follow.
Zack Snyder is another well-known extra-footage personality. The desire to see his unfinished business behind the camera even led to the call for a complete overhaul of the original "Justice League" movie. The "Justice League" Snyder cut did become a reality, but only after it was given a shot in the arm by DC fans' obsessive need to see what could have been. A massive campaign was fueled by the hashtag #ReleaseTheSnyderCut. Warner Bros. eventually buckled under the pressure and invested $70 million in creating a workable new version of Snyder's original vision.
While deleted scenes and extended editions can create fun new experiences for fan bases, they can also backfire. In the case of Snyder's passion project, the retooled film didn't have the same impact as was hoped. In hindsight, Warner Bros. reportedly regretted releasing the Snyder cut since it didn't satisfy fan expectations.
Villeneuve goes all in with his films
"It is a painful project, but it is my job," Villeneuve said to Collider in reference to the editing process. "The movie prevails. I'm very, I think, severe in the editing room. I'm not thinking about my ego, I'm thinking about the movie." Yet the acclaimed director doesn't cut too much out of his movies — at least, not without good reason. Later in the interview, he explained his criteria for how he plans out and edits a movie — and it has nothing to do with studio-mandated time restrictions.
"For me, the length of the movie is based on what the story needs," he explained, adding that some movies barely need an hour while others require several times that length. In the case of "Dune: Part Two," 2¾ hours was the perfect amount. "I wanted an energy in the movie that I was looking for that excited me, and I thought that was the perfect runtime ..." he said. "For me, no matter what is the physical length of the running time, it's always the experience as you're watching the movie and how you feel."
In the case of the pair of Dune films, Villeneuve may not be planning on adding extra scenes, but fans can rest assured they already have a lavish runtime to relish. The two movies together add up to well over 5 hours, plenty of time for Paul Atreides' (Timotheé Chalamet) early story to play out as he emerges from the deserts of Arrakis to rule the known universe.