It isn’t every day that you hear about a director who was once involved with a project just straight up deciding to leave out of the blue but it certainly has happened in the past. The French-Canadian filmmaker, Denis Villeneuve has also allegedly pulled a similar move as the director recently revealed that will no longer be directing the HBO drama series, The Son.
Denis Villeneuve will no longer be directing The Son
The Son was a drama series that was supposed to be based on Jo Nesbø’s novel of the same name. The Son revolves around the story of an opium addict, Sonny Lofthus who has escaped prison and is unable to recall his past. Back in 2016, The Son was greenlit by HBO and later Denis Villeneuve was announced as the director of the series.
It was later revealed that Jake Gyllenhaal will portray the role of Sonny Lofthus in the series and the creators of Westworld, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy were also named to be the executive producers of the project. Denis Villeneuve and Jake Gyllenhaal have also worked on multiple projects together in the past and have an amazing understanding of each other which could’ve been incredible for this series.
However, Denis Villeneuve recently appeared for an interview with a Norwegian outlet, VG, and revealed that he will not be able to direct The Son anymore. He said,
“I love the project. And I love the book and the author. He is very good. The script for the adaptation is excellent, but I feel it is a long way from my abilities.”
The Prisoners director further added that he feels that someone else should definitely take up the project and direct The Son.
Fans speculate about Denis Villeneuve’s leaving The Son
A lot of things have changed in the career of Denis Villeneuve since 2020 when he first agreed to be a part of HBO’s The Son series. In 2021, Villeneuve’s science-fiction movie, Dune came out which was a massive critical and commercial success at the box office. The movie even went on to win six Oscar Awards at that year’s Academy Awards ceremony.
After the success of Dune, Villeneuve started working hard for its sequel, Dune 2 which is all set to come out later this year.
After Denis Villeneuve recently revealed that he will no longer be directing The Son, many fans took to X(formerly Twitter) and started speculating that maybe a third movie of Dune might also be in the works.
Aka “Dune Messiah is green lit baby fuck the HBO thing”
— Parrrranoid Android (@TheGoalFather10) February 16, 2024
AKA “I am on to bigger things and don’t want to deal with it”
— Laffites Landing (@l_laffites) February 16, 2024
It would be kinda stupid to waste his talent on a miniseries now when he's reigning over Hollywood directing multimillion dollar-achieving sci-fi operas
Smart decision— Jaylan Salah (@jaylan_salah) February 16, 2024
My guy Denis said TV is for the starving and son, right now we’re feasting.
— Gabe Klassen (@GabeKlassen) February 17, 2024
Amid the writers’ protest that had halted all of the production last year, Denis Villeneuve was spotted in Oslo looking for shooting locations for The Son. However, it seems like as this year came around, the Enemy director just had one too many things on his plate and decided to drop the Jake Gyllenhaal series.
Dune is currently streaming on Netflix and Dune 2 is all set to be released next month on 1st March 2024.
