Last week (September 9) the first trailer for Denis Villeneuve’s new Dune adaptation was finally released. If you managed to get over Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya sharing a kiss in the preview, you might also have noticed that it’s soundtracked by a choral version of “Eclipse”, a track from Pink Floyd’s 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon.
In a recent interview with Variety, Hans Zimmer – who scored the new Dune, as well as providing the soundtrack for Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 – has confirmed that he personally reimagined the track to feature in the trailer.
Zimmer apparently supervised the recording of “Eclipse” as well, appearing in his Santa Monica-based studio via FaceTime to adhere to social distancing guidelines, with the 32-person choir gathering in groups of four across eight sessions.
“Everybody wore masks except when they were in their separate cubicles, divided by glass,” says Edie Lehmann Boddicker, who directed the choir, stating that all singers had “their own mics, and everything was wiped down between sessions.”
On Hans Zimmer’s reworking of the Pink Floyd song, Lehmann Boddicker adds: “He wanted to pay homage to the original, very back-phrased sound, a little spaced-out, so the vocals would not sound urgent. There’s a kind of joy happening in the track, a lot of hopefulness. It’s not despondent, just very peaceful and sounding not of this planet.”
Back in the mid-1970s, Alejandro Jodorowsky also attempted to incorporate Pink Floyd into the score of his own adaptation of Dune, but the film itself ultimately fell through for financial reasons. Jodorowsky has suggested that the new trailer is uninspiring, saying: “There (are) no surprises. The form is identical to what is done everywhere. The lighting, the acting, everything is predictable.”
Revisit the Dune trailer (and listen to the fruits of Zimmer’s socially-distanced labour) below.