Mary Parent Knows How to Produce Big, Artful Movies Like Oscar Contender ‘Dune: Part Two’
Mary Parent has seen it all. Since her youthful days hanging with current Warner Bros. co-chairs Michael DeLuca and Pamela Abdy at New Line Cinema, she has worked her way up the ranks at Universal Pictures, where she and Scott Stuber ran the movie division, to her own production shingle, Disruption Entertainment, which currently co-produces with Legendary Entertainment. Among many other things, Parent produced Guillermo del Toro’s “Pacific Rim” series, A.G. I?árritu’s Oscar-winning “The Revenant,” and the Monsterverse movies including blockbuster “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” ($572 million worldwide).
But the films consuming most of her attention over the past few years are Denis Villeneuve’s ongoing “Dune” trilogy (Warner Bros./Legendary). She oversees all the films at Legendary, but on some projects like “Dune,” which she sold to Legendary three years before she joined the company, she’s an on-the- ground producer.
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Part One scored $429 million day and date during the pandemic in 2021, earning ten Oscar nominations and six craft wins. “Dune: Part Two” grossed $715 million, earned five nominations including Best Picture, and is expected to repeat its recent BAFTA wins for VFX and Sound at the Oscars. Many voters are likely awaiting the third film, “Dune: Messiah,” which starts production in Budapest and Iceland this summer with a returning Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya. It’s a continuation of the series, but jumps ahead 12 years. A 2026 release date seems likely.
Here’s an edited version of our wide-ranging Zoom conversation about “Dune,” tips about how to produce a movie, and why Hollywood is flying blind these days.
The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Anne Thompson: Sequels are often not as good as the original, but you raised the ante on this one. You had to make decisions about what to keep, discard, and the overall arc of the movie.
Mary Parent: Denis was very, very, very, very clear early on that that he wanted to tackle Frank Herbert’s book in two parts. But the decision of where to end “Part One” was something that Denis and Jon Spaihts structurally got right in terms of setting up where Paul makes a determination. When you first meet him in “Part One,” there’s that beautiful moment with him and Oscar Isaac [as his father Duke Leto Atreides]: “I don’t know if this is for me.” And by the end of “Part One,” he’s lost his father. He’s taking it on, but he wants to learn the Fremen way. And it’s a cliffhanger, which was bold, and to Denis’ credit, he pulled it off. And it was almost more of an appetizer, right? Because it sets up so many things. But then, in order to conclude the book, we now go deep. We go bigger and more intimate at the same time. For “Part Two” we’re delving deeper into the world, including worm riding!
You left a good deal unexplained about just how that works.
We created a bit of a worm-riding academy, in terms of how would you actually get atop the worm, the timing. And there’s that great moment when Paul’s running across the sand dune and jumps aboard, and how would you stay on and the goggles and the whole nine yards? In that moment, when he actually stands up and pulls it off, and he’s mastered riding the worm, I felt something.
Do you look at dailies?
Dailies are a day or two after the fact. I was on set for other than a few weeks, for all of our stage work in Budapest, and then, the incredible adventure in the Middle East, which was beautiful, waking up every morning and going to work in those dunes. It was humbling. That was another thing that Denis was clear about from the start: he didn’t want to shoot this with a bunch of green screens. So much of “Dune” is about humanity’s place within nature and in the environment. And so it was about boots in the sand, boots on the ground. And it’s hard to grasp that. And [cinematographer] Greig Fraser did an extraordinary job of capturing what it feels like to be in those dunes. It’s a timeless feeling, it makes you feel small.
What were the production challenges of working in the sand?
Thankfully, they were OK shooting digitally. It’s hard to imagine. I can only sympathize with “Lawrence of Arabia,” out in the desert. Denis is all about how much can I do practically? So whether it was building the sets, we went old Hollywood style, and built them to size and scale as much as we could, which was incredible. And just the artisans, and Patrice Vermette, the [Oscar-winning] production designer, for “Part Two,” our footprint was almost 300,000 square feet of stage space. We took all the stages in Budapest, and then we had a big exhibition center. But getting out into the sand, so much of the stunts were done practically. The worms were visual effects, but there was so much done on the ground.
Did you have a very bad day?
We didn’t have a major sandstorm. Denis would get up very early and go out and shoot in the helicopter in the morning, capturing the environment at different times of day. And I remember one morning it was foggy, but he leaned in and used some of those shots. But we had incredible weather. We got lucky.
Somehow the second film is also intimate.
[Denis] went bigger, but yet, at the same time he went smaller, because the emotional core of the film was about two young people who had been handed this world, these issues, these conflicts, this war. And there’s two young people in love trying to navigate their way. And a lot of those scenes between Paul and Chani [Zendaya], they’re two people sitting on a sand dune, or two people in a still tent, very intimate, and then at the same time, full big epic worm riding and action battle scenes. And also “Part One” set up these cultures, these complex characters, they’re flawed. At the center of this film is a lot of psychological intensity. Everything he does is with a point of view, the action is with the point of view, it’s all intentional.
This movie keeps moving forward propulsively even when you don’t entirely understand what’s going on.
In “Part One” we definitely served up more dialogue than in “Part Two,” it’s a testament to the actors, particularly when you look at that finale moment with Paul and Chani. And Chani doesn’t actually say anything, but yet your heart’s breaking and you know exactly what she’s feeling. And that moment that we end the film on her at the top of the dune, as she’s calling the worm. She says everything with her eyes. But Denis intentionally tried to do more cinematically, with less dialogue.
You had a more mature Chalamet to play Paul Atreides.
When we first meet him, he is very much a boy. And he’s lived within these confined walls. He’s not been thrown into the world. And suddenly he’s lost his father. His whole world, everything he knew, everything he cared about is turned upside down from the beginning of the film to the end of “Part One.” It is a coming of age, and coming into your own power, literally and figuratively. And so a big part of “Part Two” was seeing Paul become a man. It’s part revenge story, and the film that Denis made is a cautionary tale about power, and power dynamics.
You’ve worked at the studios, seen it from all sides. You’ve had major production companies, still do. What is the pattern of development in Hollywood that we’re watching unfold, in a way that is disturbing to many people, because it means perhaps less power for the legacy studios invested in theaters, more power for the streamers.
I choose to be an optimist. We’re at a point right now where there’s no floor and there’s no ceiling. Meaning, there was a time in the business where films, even if they didn’t work, you knew the basics of where they might end up, that’s the floor. You used to be able to model such that you were able to know what the worst case scenario was. That’s completely gone out the door. And when I say no ceiling, when films really connect in the culture, we’re seeing these billion dollar films. And so if you want to be an optimist, you can say, “well, that’s great, because when films are working, they’re really working.” And when people really want to see something, you’re delivering on the promise of the premise, something that is getting into the culture and is cinema-worthy. I’m talking about the theaters. When it feels like there’s a reason to go to the theater, there’s nothing like it, and it gets into the culture. With that said, there’s so much that is challenging us for our time, for our money. And, Hollywood got away with a lot for a long time in terms of making things that were not as good as they could be. And people have woken up. When there’s something that they’re excited about and is delivering, they’re showing up in droves. But again, that floor is not there, and at the same time, it’s only gotten more expensive, just the cost of goods, inflation, making things. You wish things could be made for less. And of course, there’s the cost of marketing films. And so the hits are great and they’re big, but the misses can be painful.
You’re associated with the bigger scale epics, like “Pacific Rim.”
It was a good year for us with “Dune: Part Two,” and also “Godzilla x Kong.” Those films I’ve been producing since 2011. it was the highest-grossing film of the series, at a time when China is down a bit, and Russia’s off the table. Unfortunately, it’s also a fearful time. Making films, you’ve got to have the right amount of caution. When I’m producing a film, I’m trying to anticipate how it’s going to come off the tracks. I say to people, “You have to throw everything out in your mind, and you’re starting over again.” How is this not going to work? How is this going to go off the rails? What are the things I can be doing every single day until we actually release the film successfully to ensure its success? I never go into things thinking, “OK, this is going to be a success.” Otherwise, it blinds me to things that I may not be able to see. I have to assume the worst case.
There’s a lot of fear right now, understandably, there’s been a ton of contraction in the business. And making films requires at least one person at any given moment to be a believer, and that can take many different forms, and sometimes that baton passes a bit. But if at any given moment, there’s not somebody who’s advocating for it, it can get problematic. Very few films don’t go through a moth phase before they become a butterfly. it’s an evolution. And especially if you’re not used to looking at things in raw form. And as things evolve and build, and the vision comes to full fruition, there can be moments where it gets bumpy. There’s so much fear right now that it’s harder sometimes to get behind some of the bolder decisions. And that’s the essence of what made Hollywood great to begin with. It’s a fine line to walk.
Why don’t the studios make more smaller budget movies that are exciting and original, that would allow them to take more risks?
A24 is doing a great job of making films, and obviously, the bar for their success isn’t going to be as high as a bigger-budgeted film. We’ve seen Jason Blum do it successfully. What it boils down to is certain films can’t be made for a certain price. At the end of the day, it depends on what the idea is, who the people are, who are involved. it’s about ideas that regardless of budget, can get into the culture and break out. We just saw it with “Terrifier.” Incredibly inventive horror films are being made, and it’s a genre that, when it’s working on all levels, has something to say about the moment in time, and can be made on a smaller scale. Regardless of budget, it’s trying to tell stories that can connect with people in ways that they feel compelled to go to the theater. Just because you make a big-budget film doesn’t mean people are going to go to the theater. And then when they don’t, it’s even more painful.
I?árritu is still shooting a new untitled movie starring Tom Cruise and Jesse Plemons?
It’s tightly under wraps. He’s one of the most talented and boldest artists working, like Denis. They know how to work on a big canvas, but at the same time, they make intimate and soulful films, and they’re able to paint up and down.
Is Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki shooting it?
Chivo is going to work on it.
What else do you have coming up?
We made “Animal Friends” with Maximum Effort, with Ryan Reynolds. It’s our R-rated, live-action Pixar movie with a tremendous amount of heart, voiced by Reynolds and Jason Momoa. It’s “Homeward Bound” meets “Ted,” but it’s got a tremendous amount of heart and pathos to it. In partnership with Warner Brothers, we’ve got “A Minecraft Movie” coming out in April. If you know the game at all, it’s a lot about creativity and collaboration. And there’s an absurdist tone to it. Jared Hess (“Napoleon Dynamite”) has done a great job in terms of respecting the game, but at the same time, he’s good with idiosyncratic characters. So that’s been a lot of fun. We did that in New Zealand.
Strangely, “Dune: Part Two” is timely.
Frank Herbert wrote this book over 50 years ago. “Dune” is set post an AI war. We’ve exterminated ourselves with AI and we’ve tried to rely not on computers, but with human potential. So on one hand, there’s nothing dystopian about it. We’ve survived. It’s optimistic. Humanity survived. At the same time, we’re up to our same tricks: power dynamics, resource hoarding, the environment. So Frank Herbert was incredibly prescient. I feel lucky to be a part of making things, and telling stories to entertain people, to inspire people, but also to cause them to reflect, is also the hope. “Dune” does that in spades.
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