Ever since he played Thanos in the MCU,Josh Brolinis being seen in increasingly more blockbuster fare, fromDeadpool 2to the upcomingDune, in which Brolin plays the role of Warmaster Gurney Halleck. In a recent interview with ComicBook.com, Brolin weighed in on the difference between working on a giant producer-driven franchise like the MCU versus makingDuneaccording to the singular vision of filmmaker Denis Villeneuve. The actor admitted he had a problem with the frequent script changes he had to endure while playing Thanos.
“[They give you] everything. There was none of that, and by the way, they did withMarvelalso, the only thing with Marvel is once in a while, I started to pick up on why do they keep changing it when we get to the set? Because they would release pages to make you think it was one thing, and then you would change it and do it, that was annoying.”
Marvel is famously tight-lipped about its various movie storylines right up until the day of the project’s premiere, and many actors who worked in the MCU have talked about being handed fake scripts to throw any possible onset snoops off the scent. Brolin went on to explain that sinceDuneis closely based on Frank Herbert’s well-known sci-fi novel of the same name, there is less focus on keeping the script details secret.
“With [Dune], it’s all out there, you have a book, you have source material, it’s kind of tough to hide it, even thoughit’s a very loyal adaptation, there’s some things that are changed, there’s some things that are ad-lib, there’s some things that are created for… Because it kind of has its own life, but no. And it’s all practical, we’re on sets that you’re looking at, you’re in the middle of these massive sets, the production design was on a massive scale, whereas Marvel, it’s kind of up to your imagination, both are equally fascinating and deserve a lot of focus, but very different.”
Brolin’s words are a lot more diplomatic than Villeneuve’s. Theauteur filmmakerrecently incurred the wrath of MCU fans when he said the franchise used a “cut and paste” format for all its films that have turned audiences into “zombies” who keep expecting the same kind of entertainment.
Villeneuve isn’t the first filmmaker to have taken shots at the MCU, or complained that an overreliance on the franchise has turned audiences off other cinematic fares. The difference is that withDune, Villeneuve hopes to appeal to the very same movie-going demographic that the MCU has catered to since day one.
But despite the surface similarities,Duneoffers a very different sci-fi world than the MCU. The movie is being touted as a “grown-up” version ofStar Warsthat is more interested in complex world-building and evolved character motivations than explosions and quip-laden fight scenes. Only time will tell if audiences warm up to Villeneuve’s magnum opus in a similar manner to Marvel movies.Dunearrives in theaters and on HBO Max on October 22. This news comes fromComicBook.com.
