While the first installment was a massive success in itself, the second installment of Denis Villeneuve’s live-action world of Dune has reached even greater heights. That being said, it is being widely loved by fans worldwide, especially those who watched the first part and were absolutely smitten with it.
However, there is something about Part Two that a majority of fans must have failed to notice: Its undeniable connection to Robert Pattinson’s 2022 film that marked his debut in the DCU, aka The Batman. How, you ask? Well, there is one very iconic scene in the movie that is quite literally the exact copy of the one from Pattinson’s film!
The scene in Dune: Part Two that seems like it’s copied from The Batman
In Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two, there is the iconic scene where Timothée Chalamet‘s Paul Atreides walks into the picture with a sandworm bellowing behind him, his blurred figure slowly coming into focus and beginning to form shape as he gets closer.
As it turns out, this scene has been inspired, or perhaps even copied, from Robert Pattinson‘s The Batman. In the 2022 film, this scene appears following the Penguin car chase, as Pattinson walks over to the overturned car with fire raging behind him.
What’s more, is that in both of these scenes, both Chalamet and Pattinson have their capes flying behind them as their blurred images are slowly focused on to display them more clearly. As a fan, @Ajay005RB pointed out the same on X:
Dune 2/The Batman (2022)
cinematography: Greig Fraser pic.twitter.com/CIOHk79wzr
— ಅಜಯ್05 (@Ajay005RB) March 7, 2024
Inevitably enough, both of these scenes as well as the images have been some of the most distinguished ones in both of the respective movies, and the fact that they’re too similar can be credited to cinematographer Greig Fraser.
Just like Fraser did the cinematography on the film that marked Pattinson’s debut in the DC Universe, he was also responsible for the camerawork for the two films from Denis Villeneuve’s live-action world of Frank Herbert‘s novel series.
Thus, because of these reasons and because the person responsible for the principal photography of both the films was the same, those two remarkable scenes where the protagonist of the movie walks in an iconic manner are all too similar.
But apart from these, there could be one more reason: Perhaps Fraser did it to honor Pattinson, who wanted to star in Part Two?
Robert Pattinson wanted to star in Dune: Part Two
A long time before the release of Denis Villeneuve‘s Part Two and a little time after the release of Part One of the novel-based film saga, the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire star expressed his wish in an interview that he wished to star in the “sequel” of Part One.
This happened while he was busy promoting The Batman, and was asked by Variety why he decided to work with the film’s director, Matt Reeves. While explaining this why, Pattinson let slip this very wish of his to star in Villeneuve’s universe as he said:
“There’s only been two movies — well, three now — where I wanted to do a sequel: the ‘Apes’ movies, ‘Sicario’ and ‘Dune’.”
Following this revelation was a lot of speculation and fan-casting of Pattinson in the film. In fact, ScreenRant even shared their views on this matter, claiming the most accurate casting for the Twilight star would be that of Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen.
However, as the series of unfortunate events turned out to be, Pattinson was left rather empty-handed as all the star-studded roles got bagged by other stars, with that of Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen notably being scored by Austin Butler.
It is because of all of these reasons that it seems all the more likely that Greig Fraser added that effect to Paul Atreides’ iconic entrance to pay homage to Pattinson. But then again, it could also be a mere coincidence, a conflict of similar choices, so there’s no guarantee to this assumption.
You can stream The Batman on Netflix while Dune: Part Two is out in theatres now.
