Dune's 155-minute runtime made it a better movie than the shorter original cut, says the film's editor, Joe Walker. After delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Dune was finally released in theaters and on HBO Max in October of last year. Directed by Blade Runner 2049's Denis Villeneuve and starring Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides, the film adapted Frank Herbert's 1965 novel of the same name. More precisely, the film adapted the first half of Herbert's novel, with Dune: Part Two expected to begin filming this summer and hit cinemas next year.
Though clocking in at a lengthy 155 minutes, Dune's runtime was not out of step with other pandemic and post-pandemic era blockbusters, including the 163-minute No Time To Die, Spider-Man: No Way Home's 148 minutes, and The Batman's mammoth 176-minutes. The film's length didn't deter audiences from flocking to see the film, nor critics from heaping praise on Villeneuve's adaptation. While the Canadian director missed out on a Best Director Oscar nomination, the film has received 10 Oscar nods, including for Best Picture and Best Editing.
Speaking with Screen Daily, the now three-time Academy Award-nominated editor Joe Walker discussed the ins and out of the Dune cutting room. Specifically, Walker remarked how the film's initial cut was shorter and "faster." Working alongside Villeneuve, however, the film ended up growing in length. Walker says this was to gain a greater "insight into the [characters'] souls," including more of Paul's visions to provide a "sense of destiny and progression."
Dune's initial shorter cut might be attributable to Villeneuve and Walker's experience as director and editor on Blade Runner 2049, a box office bomb whose failure was partially attributed to its lengthy runtime. Herbert's book has long been viewed as one of the hardest novels to adapt for the screen, partially due to the density of the story and lore of the sci-fi world, which requires time to properly establish. Director Alejandro Jodorowsky's unsuccessful attempt to adapt the novel in the mid-70s envisioned a 10-hour feature film in order to do justice to the source's complexity. -Screen Rant
