Award-winning director Denis Villeneuve’s highly anticipated Dune: Part Two, a follow-up to 2021’s six-time Academy Award-winning Dune, is all set to hit the theatres on March 1, 2024. The big-screen epic continues the adaptation of Frank Herbert’s acclaimed bestselling novel Dune. In addition to Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya, Dune: Part Two will see Austin Butler joining the international ensemble cast of new and returning stars.
In Dune: Part Two, Butler plays Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, the deadliest weapon of House Harkonnen, whose intelligence is matched by his cruelty, both of which he employs in combat, making him a truly formidable foe to anyone that crosses his path. In the movie, Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen appears feline and muscular along with the full-body alopecia typical of the Harkonnens. Ahead of the release of the film, Pinkvilla exclusively spoke to Austin Butler about how he underwent an intense training for his Dune: Part Two role, which included Kali, which is Filipino stick fighting, and “a lot of knife work.”
Austin Butler shares how he underwent intense training for Dune: Part Two
In an exclusive conversation with Pinkvilla, Oscar-nominated actor Austin Butler shared how he underwent intense training to look and feel the part of Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, a vicious fighter and psychopath, in Dune: Part Two. “I had months to train with this amazing guy, Duffy Gaver, who is a stuntman and was a Navy SEAL, and of course Roger Yuan, he’s brilliant, a legend, and I get to fight him in the film,” Butler shared.
“I knew the fight scenes were going to be really taxing, and I wanted them to feel powerful, so we trained a lot,” he continued. “We did a lot of Kali, which is Filipino stick fighting, and a lot of knife work. It was really about trying to find Feyd’s fighting style, and if Paul has training in the Atreides and Fremen way of fighting, how does Feyd’s differ,” the Elvis star explained. “And I trained vocally as well,” Butler said. “And once I saw myself in the mirror and I didn’t have any hair, and I had the black teeth… You start to see the transformation, and that just becomes a blast, because then you can lose yourself in it,” he revealed.
About Dune: Part Two’s star-studded international ensemble
In addition to Chalamet, Butler and Zendaya, Dune: Part Two also stars Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar nominee Josh Brolin, Oscar nominee Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Oscar winner Christopher Walken, Léa Seydoux, Souheila Yacoub, Stellan Skarsgård, Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling, and Oscar winner Javier Bardem.
The film, from Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures, will explore the mythic journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a path of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, he endeavours to prevent a terrible future only he can foresee. Dune: Part Two is slated for a March 1, 2024 release in theaters across India in English and Hindi. It also releases in IMAX Cinemas one day early on February 29.
