With his highly-anticipated adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune – starring Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya – hitting cinemas this week, Denis Villeneuve has opened up about the process behind filming his 2017 Blade Runner sequel, calling it his “worst-best” idea ever.

Speaking at London’s BFI Southbank yesterday (October 19), the filmmaker said that he initially rejected the idea, saying: “I declined at one point because I thought it was too dangerous. But, after a while, we talked again and I accepted. It was a very powerful and rewarding experience.”

He added: “I’m still very happy about the experience of doing Blade Runner 2049. I still think it was the worst-best idea to do a sequel to a masterpiece – it’s sacrilegious territory. You don’t do a sequel to Blade Runner.”

“Blade Runner was offered to me as I was shooting Sicario, before Arrival. It‘s just that Ridley Scott is known to cook a lot of projects at the same time – and time was running out,” he explained. “Harrison Ford wanted to shoot and Ridley wasn‘t available, so they started to look for someone else and they came to me  – which is surreal.”

“We had a secret meeting in the desert and the producer insisted that no one saw us. He gave me an envelope (with the title) ‘Queensborne’ and he said, ‘‘Queensborne’ doesn't exist, it’s Blade Runner’. I was deeply moved to tears just to have the chance to read the script.”

Still, Villeneuve maintains, “If I had to do it, I would do it again”. 

Villeneuve’s Dune will hit cinemas and HBO Max on October 22. Its success will apparently be a deciding factor in whether Dune Part Two is greenlit, though the director has already optimistically teased ideas for a third instalment, based on the Frank Herbert’s Dune Messiah.

Watch the latest trailer below.