Oscar Isaac On For Denis Villeneuve’s Dune

Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘ Oscar Isaac has reportedly joined the cast of Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s science-fiction classic, Dune.

Isaac will portray Leto I Atreides, the near-ageless father of Timothee Chalamet’s protagonist, and husband to Rebecca Ferguson’s Lady Jessica. Guardians of the Galaxy’s Dave Bautista and Mamma Mia’s Stellan Skarsgård also round out the cast. Villeneuve is directing and co-writing the script with Eric Roth (Forrest Gump) and Jon Spaihts (Doctor Strange).

Herbert’s original 1965 novel is set in the distant future of humanity’s existence, and follows a feudal intergalactic society in which proud, noble houses vie for control of entire planets. Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides (Chalamet), whose storied family is gifted stewardship over the desert planet Arrakis, home to the coveted spice ‘melange’ – a drug that gives the user a longer life span, greater vitality, and heightened awareness. Melange, often simply referred to as ‘the spice’, is the most important and valuable substance in the universe, and as such, control of Arrakis is a dangerous undertaking that paints a target on the back of Paul’s family, forever altering the course of his life. The story explores the multiple facets that encompass the inter-sectionalism of politics, religion, ecology, technology, and human emotion, as the many factions struggle against each other for control of Arrakis.

Dune is presently lacking a release date, and will be financed and distributed by Legendary Pictures. Oscar Isaac can next be seen in Netflix’s military heist thriller Triple Frontier, opposite Ben Affleck, Charlie Hunnam, and Pedro Pascal.