Javier Bardem is the latest A-list name booking a passage to the desert planet Arrakis.
The actor is in negotiations to join the high-wattage cast of Dune, Legendary’s adaptation of the Frank Herbert novel being directed by Denis Villeneuve.
Timothee Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Dave Bautista, Stellan Skarsgard and Charlotte Rampling are set for life and death political intrigue on Arrakis, with Zendaya and Oscar Isaac in talks to also join the lineup.
Dune, considered a sci-fi literary classic, tells the complex story of a fallen noble family’s attempt to control a desert planet named Arrakis and its export, a rare spice drug, even as it is betrayed by a galactic emperor.
If a deal makes, Bardem will play Stilgar, the leader of planet’s nomadic tribes known as Fremen, opposite Chalamet’s Paul Atreides, the son of the ruler of the family, who is forced to escape into the desert wastelands and partner with its tribes.
Dune is eyeing shoots in Budapest and Jordan starting this spring.
The film’s script was written by Villeneuve, Eric Roth and Jon Spaihts. Villeneuve is also producing, along with Mary Parent and Cale Boyter.
Bardem, who won an Oscar for his performance in No Country for Old Men, counts Darren Aronosky’s Mother! And Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales amongst his recent credits.
Bardem is repped by WME and Bloom Hergott.
