Eyebrows were raised over the Dune franchise's runtime, but Denis Villeneuve proved the sceptics wrong with his Dune: Part Two, which clocked in at 166 minutes and successfully grossed over $700 miilion globally at box-office.
During an interview with The Sunday Times, the Canadian filmmaker said, "This was the only way I could succeed. Also, think of 'Oppenheimer.' It is a three-hour, rated-R movie about nuclear physics that is mostly talking. But the public was young –- that was the movie of the year by farformykids."
Previously, Denis opened up about the chances of the third instalment in the fantasy franchise.
"It's also about making sure that I have the right screenplay. I have four projects on the table, currently. One of them is a secret project that I cannot talk about right now, but that needs to see the light of day quite quickly," the 56-year-old told The Hollywood Reporter.
He continued, "So it would be a good idea to do something in between projects, before tackling Dune Messiah and Cleopatra. All these projects are still being written, so we'll see where they go, but I have no control over that."