The Poster Memorabilia blog

A New Cinematic World to Get Into

Venice, September 2021 — a six-minute ovation, a stacked carpet, and a poster full of signatures.

By an anonymous Hollywood insider

Thank God for Denis Villeneuve! Movies were getting a bit boring for a time when all we could watch were superhero flicks and Disney remakes. When Denis Villeneuve came out with his adaptation of Dune, we finally had a brand new world worth getting into. I can only imagine this was how Star Wars fans felt when A New Hope premiered.

The movie was amazing, to say the least, and I'm not surprised a sequel came only a couple of years after. However, I consider the cast the best part of the film. A popular plot and high-quality special effects can only get a movie so far. It needs excellent actors to tell the story well.

“Thank God for Denis Villeneuve!”

Fortunately, Villeneuve got Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, and Jason Momoa to star in his Dune. They did such an amazing job that I can't believe they weren't even nominated for Outstanding Ensemble at the SAG Awards the following year. It was a travesty.

Don't get me wrong, the movie cleaned up where it counted, taking home six Oscars for things like cinematography, editing, score, and visual effects. But not a single acting nod anywhere, and no ensemble nomination either. It's the same old story: the crafts get the trophies, and everyone acts like the people on screen had nothing to do with why it worked.

Well, at least I still got to be one of the first people to watch the movie. And what's even better was getting their autographs, too.

I had the amazing privilege of attending the 78th Venice International Film Festival, where Dune premiered, and I got to see the cast on the red carpet. Almost everyone was there: Chalamet, Zendaya, Isaac, Bardem, Ferguson, Brolin, Skarsgård, and more. These were all big names, yet they didn’t even market the movie as an all-star ensemble.

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They're also acting powerhouses, so I'm not surprised the movie was a critical success. The film got a six-minute standing ovation that night, the longest of the whole festival, and standing in that crowd it felt like everyone knew they'd just seen something that would last. I'd even go so far as to say Dune might just be a generational franchise, similar to how Star Wars was to Baby Boomers or the early X-Men movies were to millennials.

Seeing them in person convinced me that they're truly larger than life. They have a different aura in person, which made it easier for me to believe that they truly were nobles and warriors in this space-age fantasy. I think I enjoyed it even more because of it.

No matter how noble they were, however, they were still people. Very nice people! I asked them for their autographs, and no one refused. One by one, these movie stars took my poster and signed it. Chalamet in particular spent ages down at the fan end of the carpet, signing everything put in front of him. I couldn't believe that my first time meeting celebrities got me all those awesome autographs.

I then met the rest of the cast at other red-carpet events, and they were just as nice. I’m sure I eventually met all of them and got them to sign the same poster. It took me a couple of years and a lot of hounding, but all that time and effort were definitely not a waste.

Some things you watch. This one you keep.

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