Timothée Chalamet Will Headline Denis Villeneuve’s DUNE

In a new report that is all but guaranteed to send segments of Twitter into absolute fits of unhinged hysteria, The Hollywood Reporter has just revealed that Call Me By Your Name star Timothée Chalamet is in official negotiations to headline Denis Villeneuve's Dune adaptation.

For those unfamiliar with Frank Herbert's classic sci-fi novel (or David Lynch's not-so-classic 1984 adaptation), THR offers the following succinct synopsis:

"The novel, initially published in the 1960s, tackled political, religious and environmental themes through a sci-fi lens, telling the complex story of a fallen ruling family’s attempt to control a desert planet named Arrakis and its export, a rare spice drug, while being betrayed by a galactic emperor."

Should everything go according to plan, Chalamet will be playing the lead role of Paul Atreides, the character played by Kyle Machlachlan in Lynch's version of the film. Atreides is the son of the ruler of the aforementioned "fallen ruling family", who - after being forced to escape into Arakis' desert wastelands - finds himself adopted as a messiah figure by the nomadic people he encounters there. Eventually, Atreides leads an army to combat the villainous empire that's horned in on his family's territory, and also he rides a giant sandworm or something.

Look, it's been a while since I saw Dune.

Anyway, this is very exciting casting. Chalamet's age-appropriate for the role according to Herbert's original text, and has proven himself one of the more exciting up-and-coming actors in Hollywood over the past few years. We're still kinda amazed that Dune's actually moving ahead after Villeneuve's last would-be sci-fi epic (Blade Runner 2049) failed to set the world on fire, but this is not a complaint. We fully expect this to be a truly epic take on Herbert's source material.

Nothing further to report at this time, but with the film's most central role close to being locked in - and with an early 2019 start date fast approaching - we should expect to hear much more about Dune in the weeks and months ahead. Stay tuned for all that, gang.