How Dune's Director Made Baron Harkonnen Scary For A Modern Audience
Denis Villeneuve, the director of Dune, explains how he changed the character of Baron Harkonnen for modern cinema. Adapted from the first half of Frank Herbert’s novel of the same name, Dune was released in 2021 to huge critical and commercial acclaim. The film’s success was rewarded with nominations in ten categories at the upcoming Academy Awards, including Best Picture. A sequel, which will cover the second half of Herbert’s work, is scheduled for release in 2023.
The story of Dune centers on the young Paul Atreides, played by Timothée Chalamet, as his family relocates to the desert planet of Arrakis. The family is attacked by the brutal Harkonnens, led by the enormous Baron Harkonnen, who regain control over the planet through force, killing Paul’s father in the process. Taking its lead from the book, Dune: Part Two will explore the uprising against the Harkonnens as Paul attempts to avenge his father and regain his rightful place as leader of the treacherous planet.
Now, in an event at the Directors Guild of America, Villeneuve has explained his approach to translating the character of Baron Harkonnen from the book to the big screen. The director shared his opinion that, while the majority of the book has aged well, there were some aspects that needed updating. Specifically, he stated his opinion that the novel’s villains lacked depth and were “caricature[s]”, and that with Baron Harkonnen he had “a lot of work to do”. Check out the director’s full comments below:
The book aged very well, in my humble opinion, [except] for the bad guys. They are really a caricature of ‘twirling their moustache’. I did feel that I had a lot of work to do on my villain, and on the shape. I didn't want [Baron Harkonnen] to look like a joke, or a caricature, or a fat baby. I wanted to create a threat, to create fear. To create a taciturn character where we feel his high intelligence. A paranoid character who calculates all the time, who you’d be afraid of just by his presence.
With the help of excellent prosthetic work and Stellan Skarsgård’s menacing performance, Villeneuve certainly succeeded in bringing a memorable version of the character to life. However, the director is right to highlight that his depiction of the character is different from the Baron Harkonnen seen in the novel, who is described as an even larger, more verbose character who takes joy from his villainy. In contrast to the film’s serious and grounded tone, an on-screen version of the Baron more like the one described in the book could have been jarring, which Villeneuve clearly was conscious to avoid.
Despite his presence looming large over the film, Baron Harkonnen was only present in a small handful of scenes across Dune’s 155-minute runtime. Audiences will likely get to spend more time in the intimidating presence of the character in Dune: Part 2, however, as he has a larger role in the second half of the story. Hopefully, the menace that Villeneuve managed to convey with Baron Harkonnen in Dune will be just as effective when the story returns to screens in 2023.
Source: Directors Guild of America