Bringing iconic sci-fi villains to the screen in director Denis Villeneuve's 'Dune' was a massive special effects undertaking for every department.
Well before Darth Vader was even a gleam in George Lucas’ eye, author Frank Herbert knew that any good sci-fi epic needs a formidable villain. In his sweeping 1965 novel “Dune,” Herbert introduced one for the ages: a corpulent, power-hungry sadist with the suitably sinister name of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.
In his doomed effort to tackle the book in the 1970s, director Alejandro Jodorowsky hoped to cast Orson Welles as the Baron and recruited Swiss artist H.R. Giger, who would go on to worldwide renown for his work on “Alien,” to. Director David Lynch’s ill-fated 1984 “Dune” depicted the Baron as a grotesque, lascivious loudmouth covered in hideous pustules, with a codpiece-wearing Sting as his heir apparent Feyd-Rautha.
Villeneuve and storyboard artist Sam Hudecki spent weeks brainstorming approaches to the Baron’s physicality, trying to convey a sense of muscularity along with corpulence. “I was trying to bring him closer to the spirit of a gorilla than a fat baby,” Villeneuve says. “I wanted to get away from a feeling of decadence and more toward a feeling of power.”
For the Harkonnen palace, rather than rely on extensive CGI, a vast physical set was built on a soundstage in Budapest. “We all shared the same philosophy on the film that the more immersive we can make the space, the better,” Vermette says.”The sets were humongous and everything was physically built,” says Skarsgård. “You get on set that first day and you see this huge room that is your home and you know that room will do a lot of the work for you.
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