DUNE: PART THREE Will Reportedly Be Shot on Actual Film, a First for the Franchise
It looks like Denis Villeneuve is making a bold visual leap for Dune: Part Three, and fans of classic filmmaking should be pretty damn excited.
The upcoming sequel, based on Frank Herbert’s Dune Messiah, will reportedly be shot, at least in part, on actual film stock. That’s a major shift from the digital workflow used for the first two Dune films, and it marks a significant aesthetic change for this ever-evolving sci-fi saga.
The news first broke through Kodak Motion Picture Film’s official Instagram account. Though the Story post has since expired, screenshots and reposts across the internet indicate that Dune: Part Three is making use of Kodak’s film stock. While not yet officially confirmed, it lines up with a few other notable changes happening behind the scenes.
For starters, Greig Fraser, the cinematographer behind the breathtaking visuals of Dune and Dune: Part Two, won’t be returning. His work on The Batman: Part II meant he wasn’t available, and Linus Sandgren is stepping in to shoot Part Three. Sandgren has a known preference for shooting on film. In fact, all of his major projects have been captured using film rather than digital.
That choice would give Dune: Part Three a distinct visual feel, reinforcing Villeneuve’s mission to make this film stand apart from the first two.
As he previously said, the next installment “will not be the completion of a trilogy. The first two movies were really a diptych. It was really a pair of movies that will be the adaptation of the first book. That’s done and that’s finished. If I do a third one, which is in the writing process, it’s not like a trilogy. It’s strange to say that, but if I go back there, it’s to do something that feels different and has its own identity.”
Villeneuve’s desire for a fresh identity extends all the way down to the technical details. When shooting the first two films, the team used digital cameras, then printed the footage onto 35mm film and scanned it back into digital. Fraser explained the approach in an interview on the Go Creative Show podcast:
“It was an involved process that hasn’t really happened before in commercial films. But it gave us the feeling we had been picturing—a certain texture that’s painterly but feels timeless…The film has softened the edges of the digital. It gave us something that film acquisition couldn’t give us, and it gave us something that digital acquisition couldn’t give us.”
Switching to full film acquisition could push that timeless aesthetic even further, offering a more organic, textured look for the harsh desert world of Arrakis.
There’s been some confusion around the camera formats lately. During a CNBC appearance, IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond said that Villeneuve would be shooting the entire film with IMAX cameras. That turned out to be inaccurate. IMAX quickly clarified that only select scenes will use IMAX cameras, which is standard practice for most modern blockbusters.
Dune: Part Three began filming last month and is scheduled to hit theaters on December 18, 2026.