Dune: Part Two
THE GIEDI PRIME GLADIATOR SEQUENCE
WORDS CHRIS HEWITT
Left: Budapest stands in for the monochromatic Giedi Prime in Dune: Part Two.
THE ORIGIN
Given that Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two ends with its nominal hero dashing off to commit galactic genocide, it’s clear that this is a universe that isn’t black and white. Until, of course, it is. In a film filled with striking images, the depiction of Giedi Prime, the planet where we first meet super-psycho Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler) hacking and slashing his way through a selection of crysknife fodder in a gladiatorial arena, is perhaps the most striking. It is a planet entirely devoid of colour, a monochrome home to the Harkonnens that is nothing but black and white. “Denis had come to me wanting to do a scene where the sun had no colour,” cinematographer Greig Fraser tells Empire. “And I showed him a technique I’d been playing with for a few years, and I hadn’t really found a good use for it up to that point.”