Dave Bautista Reunites with Denis Villeneuve for Dune

Dave Bautista will reunite with his Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve for the filmmaker’s much-anticipated new Dune adaptation. Bautista joins a promising core cast that also features Timothee Chalamet and Rebecca Ferguson.

Based on Frank Herbert’s landmark sci-fi novel of the same name, Legendary’s Villeneuve-directed Dune “tells the complex story of a fallen noble family’s attempt to control of a desert planet named Arrakis and its export, a rare spice drug, while being betrayed by a galactic emperor,” per THR. Chalamet stars as protagonist Paul Atreides, the son of the noble family’s ruler, who is forced to escape into the desert wastes of Arrakis and rises to rule its nomadic tribes, eventually leading an army to overthrow the empire. Ferguson will play Atreides’ mother, Lady Jessica, who escapes alongside him and helps him become the nomads’ savior.

Bautista will play “Beast” Rabban, whom THR describes as “the sadistic nephew of a baron who oversees Arrakis.” Based on the character’s name alone, Bautista is a perfect fit—this is Drax the Destroyer we’re talking about, after all. And don’t forget the punishing impact Bautista made on Blade Runner 2049 despite minimal screen time, using his ample physicality to memorable effect in the film’s opening moments by smashing Ryan Gosling’s K through a wall.

Villeneuve cowrote this new Dune’s script alongside Eric Roth and Jon Spaihts, and produces with Mary Parent and Cale Boyter. Here’s hoping the Oscar-nominated Arrival and Sicario director can succeed where David Lynch failed. Adapting Dune has proven insurmountable to one visionary filmmaker after another since its publication in 1965.

Stay tuned for more on Villeneuve’s Dune and catch up on everything we know about the forthcoming film (or two films, we should say) so far right here.