Swedish actress Rebecca Ferguson, known for “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” (2015), this year’s sequel “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” (2018), and Tomas Alfredson‘s crime thriller “The Snowman” (2017), is in talks to star in the upcoming remake of “Dune” for Legendary Pictures. French Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, who led “Blade Runner 2049” and “Prisoners,” is directing from a script by Eric Roth (“The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button”).
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In June, it was revealed that Timothee Chalamet (“Call Me By Your Name,” “Ladybird” and the upcoming “Beautiful Boy”) would take the lead role of Paul Atreides, played by Kyle MacLachlan in David Lynch’s notoriously troubled 1984 version of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi classic.
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Legendary Pictures bought film and TV rights for “Dune” back in 2016 with plans to make multiple films. Villeneuve has talked about making a two-part “Dune” film, but nothing seems to be set in stone yet.
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Set in the far future, “Dune” follows young nobleman Paul Atreides, whose family assumes control of the desert planet Arrakis in the series of sprawling epic novels first published in 1965. As the sole producer of the most valuable commodity in the galaxy, Melange—a drug known popularly as “spice,” which gives its users heightened consciousness and an extended lifespan at the cost of crippling addiction and fatal withdrawal –a battle over the jurisdiction over the desert planet comes into play by competing feudal families. After Paul’s family is betrayed, the story explores themes of politics, religion, and man’s relationship with nature, as he leads a rebellion to restore his family’s reign.
No official word on who Ferguson will play. The actress was last seen in “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” and before that, last year’s box office smash musical “The Greatest Showman” alongside Hugh Jackman. [Variety]
