Judging by a newly released trailer, we're in for a wild ride in the upcoming action-adventure film Dune – and it's a journey that will take viewers across some of the UAE and Jordan's most striking landscapes.
The sci-fi epic, which is set to hit cinemas in December, stars Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Jason Momoa and Oscar Isaac in the big-screen remake of Frank Herbert's 1965 novel.
Some of the scenes for the high-octane fantasy were filmed in the Abu Dhabi desert and Jordan's Wadi Rum, both of which can be glimpsed in the new clip.
Dune is set on Arrakis, an inhospitable fictional planet that is home to the galaxy's most prized resource, a life-extending drug named "spice". The film revolves around a young royal, Paul Atreides (Chalamet), who not only has to battle hostile native creatures to mine spice, but also uphold his family's stewardship of the land against other interstellar noble houses.
The UAE forms a key backdrop of Arrakis, with its rolling sand dunes providing an eerily arid landscape.
Little Women actor Chalamet, and Star Wars' Isaac, who portrays Duke Leto Atreides, can be spied touching down in the desert, while the former can also be spotted running across the sands later in the trailer.
Arrakis is dominated by imposing creatures called sandworms, one of which appears in pursuit of Chalamet's character.
"Fear is the mind killer," the Oscar-nominated actor says in a voiceover. "Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear and I will permit it to pass over me. When the fear is gone, there will be nothing – only I will remain."
The upcoming blockbuster, directed by Denis Villeneuve, also stars Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgard and Rebecca Ferguson.
Isaac and Ferguson take on the roles of Atreides's parents, while Skarsgard portrays the head of House Harkonnen, the longstanding enemy of House Atreides.
Zendaya plays a Fremen woman, one of the native inhabitants of Arrakis, while Momoa and Brolin take on the roles of elite warriors who help train up the young Atreides. Dave Bautista, Charlotte Rampling and Javier Bardem round out the star-studded cast.
Regional shooting took place in Wadi Rum – which has also featured in The Martian, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and Aladdin – in the summer of 2019, then moved to the desert outside Abu Dhabi.
"It was really surreal," Chalamet, 24, told Variety earlier this year of shooting a scene at dawn in the south of Jordan. "There are these Goliath landscapes, which you may imagine existing on planets in our universe, but not on Earth."
The film, helmed by Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 filmmaker Villeneuve, is the second silver-screen adaption of the Hugo Award-winning novel, following David Lynch's much-criticised 1984 take.
Dune is set to be released on Friday, December 18.
See more images from the upcoming film in the gallery below:
