Copyright Variety
Robert Pattinson recently told IndieWire that filming Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Three” was hotter than imagined. Similar to the first two movies in the franchise, the latest “Dune” tentpole filmed a large portion of its scenes in the Arabian desert. “When I was doing ‘Dune’ it was so hot in the desert that I just couldn’t question anything,” Pattinson said. “And it was so relaxing, like my brain actually wasn’t operating. I did not have a single functioning brain cell. And I was just listening to Denis [Villeneuve]: ‘Whatever you want!'” Pattinson’s role in Villeneuve’s third and final “Dune” movie remains under wraps. He’s one of the threequel’s most prominent new cast members along with relative newcomers Nakoa-Wolf Momoa and Ida Brooke, who are playing Paul and Chani’s twin children. Returning cast members include Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Jason Momoa, Josh Brolin, Rebecca Ferguson and Anya Taylor-Joy. The film is based on Frank Herbert’s second “Dune” novel, “Dune Messiah.” It appears with every “Dune” movie there are countless stories about the actors enduring the scorching heat of the film’s desert locations. Austin Butler, who played the villainous Feyd-Rautha in “Dune: Part Two,” once told Entertainment Weekly that heat stroke impacted several people on set during his first week of shooting the sequel. “It was 110 degrees and so hot,” Butler said. “I had the bald cap on, and it was between two soundstages that were just these gray boxes of 200-foot walls and sand. It became like a microwave. There were people passing out from heat stroke. And that was just my first week.” “It really bonds the entire crew,” Butler added. “There’s something so humbling about being in such an uncomfortable environment.” Zendaya revealed to W Magazine that she suffered heatstroke filming “Dune: Part Two” because her costume was so heavy and she stopped drinking water on the film’s very hot Jordan desert set. “I had such a fear of peeing myself or shitting myself, honestly, in the suit on set,” she explained, referring to is the body armor worn by the Fremen warriors in the movie to help them survive the brutal conditions of the desert. “We were in Jordan. It was very hot, and I remember thinking, ‘Oh, man, the bathrooms are so far away,’ because we had to hike to the locations. If you have to pee, you need at least 10 minutes to get out of the costumes. I was like, ‘Damn, I don’t want to drink too much water.’ One day, I didn’t drink enough and I had a heatstroke. I felt so barfy. I remember calling my mom on the bathroom floor, saying, ‘I feel terrible.’ She was like, ‘Did you drink water today?’ I said no. I thought I was being smart, but you can’t do that. So, lesson learned.” Nearly all of the “Dune” cast had to endure hot temperatures while filming the space epic, which is one reason Villeneuve was grateful he didn’t go the usual Hollywood route and film both “Dune” films back-to-back with no break in productions. “Both movies were made in very harsh conditions, and it’s very physically taxing, so to have a break in between them was a blessing,” Villeneuve told EW. “My first thought was to shoot both movies back to back together, but now I think I would have died. It was really intense, and seeing how the world reacted to ‘Part One’ was a boost of positive energy to go back into the desert.”
