Legendary Entertainment has revealed a sneak peek of the artwork the company will use to promote Denis Villeneuve’s Dune at next week’s Licensing Expo with a teaser poster. Villeneuve’s upcoming sci-fi epic is adapted from Frank Herbert’s novel of the same name which centers around a desert planet called Arrakis where warring groups battle over a valuable drug known as spice. Herbert’s novel was previously adapted for the big screen by David Lynch in 1984 and though critics weren’t taken with Lynch’s Dune, the film has since amassed a cult following.

Despite the mixed reaction Lynch’s adaptation received, Villeneuve isn’t intimidated by the task ahead of him. In fact, the Oscar-nominated Arrival director has called Dune “the project of his life.” Since the movie went into production, Dune has steadily been adding to its all-star cast, which includes Timothée Chalamet (Beautiful Boy, Call Me By Your Name) as main protagonist Paul Atreides, Avengers: Endgame’s Josh Brolin as Paul’s mentor Gurney Halleck and Stellan Skarsgård (Thor: The Dark World, Avengers: Age of Ultron) as villain Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. There are even plans for a Dune sequel in place despite the movie’s release date is still over a year away.

Ahead of Licensing Expo, Film Stories tweeted a sneak peek of the Dune promo artwork Legendary will be unveiling at the annual event, which takes place next week. Though the artwork is rather stark in design, it’s certainly atmospheric with a grayscale landscape of towering sand dunes overlaid with a simple text that emphasizes Villeneuve as visionary and his Dune adaptation as epic. The Dune teaser poster was revealed alongside artwork for Legendary’s other big 2020 release Godzilla vs. Kong - the sequel to this year’s MonsterVerse epic Godzilla: King of the Monsters.

The new teaser poster isn’t the only sneak peek we’ve had of Dune. In early April, star Josh Brolin treated fans to video he filmed on set at Wadi Rum in southern Jordan that featured a panoramic sweep of the dramatic desert landscape. The enthusiastic Brolin described the location as “beautiful, peaceful, quiet, ominous” and the barren, sandy terrain - possibly the same landscape that features in the teaser poster - certainly looked like a convincing stand-in for the desert planet of Arrakis.

Although the Licensing Expo artwork unveiled so far doesn’t give too much about Dune away, there’s the possibility that Legendary might reveal more detailed artwork when the event takes place next week. Until then, hop on the Dune hype train and read up on the film’s official synopsis.

Next: Denis Villeneuve’s Dune Movie: Everything You Need To Know

Source: Film Stories/Twitter

  • Dune Release Date: 2021-10-22