It will be a sprint to finish the movie: Denis Villeneuve on completing 'Dune'

it also meant that I have to finish some elements of the movie, like VFX and the editing, being in Montreal as my crew stayed in Los Angeles," he added. The director said there was also an impact on his working relationship with his editor, Joe Walker as they both have been working distantly.

Filmmaker Denis Villeneuve says he is scrambling to finish his film "Dune" as the coronavirus pandemic has "crushed" his filming schedule. The film is an official adaptation of Frank Herbert's sci-fi classic of the same name and features a star-studded cast, comprising Timothee Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgard, Dave Bautista, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa and Javier Bardem. During a recent Montreal-based interview promoting the Shanghai International Film Festival, the director said he had broken the film's shooting into two parts and was just getting ready to head back to the second round when the pandemic hit.

"I was planning to go back and shoot some elements later because I wanted to readjust the movie. I needed time. At the time I didn’t know that it would be a pandemic... as we were about to go back to do those elements," Villeneuve said. "The impact was that it crushed my schedule right now. It will be a sprint to finish the movie on time right now, because we were allowed to go back to shoot those elements in a few weeks... it also meant that I have to finish some elements of the movie, like VFX and the editing, being in Montreal as my crew stayed in Los Angeles," he added.

The director said there was also an impact on his working relationship with his editor, Joe Walker as they both have been working distantly. "For me, the big lesson of this is I thought that it would be possible to edit at a distance having my editor sharing with computers, being far from one another, but I realise how much editing is like playing music with someone and you need to be in the same room.

"I mean there’s something about the interaction, human interaction, spontaneity, the energy in the room. I really miss not being in the same room with my editor," Villeneuve said. The director further elaborated that it has been very "painful" for him to not edit the movie with his editor.

"I’m saying, as an artist, to edit my movie not being in the same room as my editor is very, very painful. Also maybe one of the reasons is the editor is also a psychiatrist – I mean he’s the one who’s dealing with my OCD, anxiety and my panic attacks and my fears and receiving my joys. "I think that in the future, if ever something like that happened again, definitely I will make sure that my editor is close to me. Editing is a very important part of the filmmaking process for me, maybe the most important. It’s the time where you rewrite the movie in some ways," Villeneuve added. Set in the distant future, "Dune" follows Paul Atreides (Chalamet), whose family assumes control of the desert planet Arrakis, which is the only known location of the galaxy's most vital and mind-altering mineral called "spice".

After Paul and his family are betrayed, the story explores themes of politics, religion, and man''s relationship to nature, as Paul leads a rebellion to restore his family's reign. Also featuring Zendaya, David Dastmalchian and Stephen McKinley Henderson, "Dune" will hit the theatres worldwide on December 18.