Josh Brolin had a few choice words to express his disappointment at Dune director Denis Villenueve not getting a Best Director nomination.
Josh Brolin was baffled by Denis Villenueve’s snub for Best Director for Dune at this year’s 94th Academy Awards. Brolin played the role of Gurney Hallack in the Warner Bros. sci-fi epic, released in October 2021 to rave reviews and box office success. He is confirmed to reprise his role as Gurney for the eventual Dune 2, with Villenueve returning to direct.
Dune, based on Frank Herbert’s influential novel of the same name, was nominated for 10 Oscars and ended up winning six, including with Best Cinematography and Best Original Score. Although it was nominated for Best Picture (and lost to CODA), Villenueve not receiving a Best Director nomination was widely considered to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, Oscar snub of 2021. So it would make sense why Brolin, one of Villenueve’s regulars, would also be understandably puzzled by the snub.
Brolin recently sat down with Collider to discuss various topics including his latest Amazon series Outer Range, the development of Deadpool 3, and, of course, Dune and Dune 2. Brolin believes that due to the vision Villenueve had for Dune, a snub should’ve been an impossibility. When asked how Best Director could have been left out of all 10 Oscar nominations, Brolin had the following to say:
“It’s the most asinine, bizarre … I mean, that’s why snubs are such a thing and that’s why we all talk about them, but that’s a snub, of a snub, of a snub that I just thought was an impossibility. But given everything about the Academy Awards, there are many impossibilities that actually materialized. So it’s all part of the game right now. I don’t know.
“Is it post pandemic mentality? Whatever it is, I don’t understand it. He helmed the whole thing. It’s his creation. It’s his interpretation. And I love how he dealt with it. And then I’ll shut up. But how he dealt with it was all he did was go right into praise for the 10 people who were nominated. And good for him. I don’t have to do that on the other hand.”
This was not the first time Brolin has expressed disappointment over Villenueve’s Oscar snub, as he previously took aim at the Academy for the shocking decision while still praising Dune’s 10 nominees. With Dune 2 in pre-production, Villenueve and Brolin are currently gearing up to return along with cast members Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya, and Javier Bardem. The sequel is currently slated for release on October 23, 2023 and will cover the second part of the novel, which details Paul Atreides (Chalamet) uniting with the Fremen against Baron Harkonen (Stellan Skarsgard). If Dune 2 is able to do just as well, if not better, than its predecessor, than maybe there could be a Best Director nomination for Villenueve the second time around.
Even though Dune, the novel, has made a huge impact on the sci-fi genre, it’s also had a long history of troubled development with its film adaptations. The first being David Lynch’s divisive 1984 adaptation followed by Villenueve’s soon-to-be two-parter, which was in development hell for years. The latter ended up garnering a much better reception amongst critics and audiences. There was a lot of pressure on Villenueve, Brolin, and company to make Dune as good as it was, and the final product paid off. All it needed was a little bit of Oscar recognition for its esteemed director.
Source: Collider
- Dune 2 (2023)Release date: Oct 20, 2023
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