Timothée Chalamet gifted his good friend Kid Cudi a limited edition action figure from the upcoming Dune remake.
“To the true master of the universe,” Chalamet scribbled on the side of the box. “The moon man...Kid Cudi. With humanity, Paul Atreides.” The gift comes after the upcoming Denis Villeneuve remake got pushed back from December of last year to October of this year, causing confusion as to whether it would still be available to stream on HBO Max. The film was confirmed by Deadline to be premiering at the 2021 Venice Film Festival.
The film is an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel of the same name and the second adaptation since David Lynch’s controversial 1984 version. The upcoming film has received a good amount of hype after it was announced the Blade Runner 2049 director would be behind the adaptation but also garnered attention due to reports that Legendary, which financed 75 percent of the budget, was in a heated battle with Warner Bros. over the switch to a hybrid streaming release. Legendary said moving the film to streaming could impact its long-term commercial value for the franchise since it’s the first of a two-parter.
At one point Villeneuve himself even chimed in, writing an essay that bashed Warner Bros. for its streaming decision. “There is absolutely no love for cinema, nor the audience here,” he wrote. “Warner Bros.’ sudden reversal from being a legacy home for filmmakers to the new era of complete disregard draws a clear line for me. Filmmaking is a collaboration, reliant on the mutual trust of team work and Warner Bros has declared they are no longer on the same team.”
