After Oppenheimer’s Big Success, Dune Director Making Nuclear War Movie

Legendary Entertainment has acquired the rights to Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen’s nonfiction book Nuclear War: A Scenario, which Deadline is reporting may hint at a possible collaboration with Dune: Part Two director Denis Villeneuve. The deal, valued at $500,000 against $1.5 million, emerges as Nuclear War has been getting traction on the New York Times bestseller lists.

Jacobsen’s book explores a hypothetical nuclear war scenario, drawing from interviews with military and civilian experts intimately involved in the development and strategic planning surrounding nuclear weapons. According to Deadline, there’s an “expectation” that Villeneuve will take on an adaptation of Jacobsen’s book following the completion of Dune: Messiah, which marks the conclusion of another ambitious book-to-film adaptation.

That said, Dune: Messiah is not an immediate certainty. Villeneuve told GameSpot recently that there’s a “possibility” he may return for a third and final installment, adding that he believes Dune 3 is “in the works right now.” Villeneuve himself previously said that his “dream” is to make a Dune trilogy, and that there are already “words on paper” for a third entry.

In March 2024, Dune: Part Two became the highest-grossing film of the year so far, earning $637 million globally. This success was followed by Oppenheimer’s triumph at the Oscars. It’s also worth mentioning that Oppenheimer, directed by Christopher Nolan, is based on the 2005 biography American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.

Apart from a potential third Dune film, Warner Bros. Discovery is producing a Dune TV series. Additionally, Dune: Awakening is set to debut in the gaming world.