Lots of major film productions shoot with multiple units. Usually, there’s the first unit, where the director and lead actors capture the bulk of the film. Then there’s also often a second unit that gets footage that doesn’t need those actors—things like establishing shots or action scenes. And, on a film the size of Dune Part Three, you can be sure it not only had both of those but probably more. In fact, director Denis Villeneuve revealed he also had a third unit that he called “the psychedelic unit.”
On Wednesday, Villeneuve and Paul Atreides himself, Timothée Chalamet, attended an event to launch the new trailer for Dune: Part Three (watch it here), and during the Q&A, Villeneuve was asked about what from his French Canadian heritage he was bringing to the film. Here’s where he brought up this unique group.
“I was raised watching movies, experimental movies from the National Film Board. That’s where my cinematic education started, watching National Film Board of Canada, short films, and I wanted to bring that kind of experimental feeling to Dune: Part Three,” Villeneuve said. “So to do so, I created a special small unit, very tiny unit, of a few filmmakers. And their task was to do experiments in front of the camera to bring some crazy, insane footage that I would use for the movie. And that unit was called the psychedelic unit. And the psychedelic unit was led by two young French Canadians, Kristof Brandl and Salomé Villeneuve, and their task was to bring some crazy images that you will see in the movie.”
We don’t know what, specifically, from the “psychedelic unit” made it into Dune: Part Three, but we do know that Paul, his sister, Alia, and probably Paul and Chani’s kids all have visions. So what better way to make those visions as cinematic as possible than to just hire some young, talented filmmakers to only do that?
We’ll see what the first unit, second unit, psychedelic unit, and lord knows how many other units have cooked up when Dune: Part Three opens on December 18.
Note: We reached out to Warner Bros. to confirm the second “psychedelic unit” filmmaker’s name, which was Salomé Villeneuve, Denis’ daughter. That has been added.
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