Steven Spielberg Calls ‘Dune 2’ Sandworm Surfing Scene ‘One Of The Greatest Things I’ve Ever Seen’

Filmmaking legend Steven Spielberg is singing the praises of director Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two, especially over the hit sci-fi epic’s impressive desert scenes.

In a conversation between Spielberg and Villeneuve for the Director’s Guild of America’s Director’s Cut podcast, Spielberg likened Dune: Part Two’s desert scenes — which take place on the sandy environs of the planet Arrakis — to scenes on an ocean.

“This is a desert-loving story, but for such a desert-loving film there is such a yearning for water in this movie. For all the sand you have in this film, it’s really about water,” Spielberg told Villeneuve. “The sacred waters that are yearning for green meadows and the blue water of life. You film the desert to resemble an ocean, a sea.”

In his greatest praise of Dune: Part Two’s desert scenes, Spielberg said, “The sandworms were like sea serpents. And that scene surfing the sandworms is one of the greatest things I have ever seen. Ever! But you made the desert look like a liquid.”

Spielberg’s assessment of the film wasn’t solely around the sandworm surfing scene, where Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) proves his worth to Arrakis’ indigenous Fremen tribe by riding the sand beast.

Spielberg Adds Villeneuve To The List Of Film’s Greatest World Builders

Steven Spielberg, of course, has directed his fair share of sci-fi film classics, including Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. the Extraterrestrial, and in the fantasy adventure sphere, Jaws and the first four films in the Indiana Jones movie series.

But in a moment of modesty during the DGA podcast, Spielberg cast his impressive resume aside in favor of Dune: Part Two, telling Denis Villeneuve, “You have made one of the most brilliant science-fiction films I’ve ever seen.”

Spielberg was not only impressed by the filmmaker’s world-building sensibilities, he now includes the director — whose previous films include the first Dune movie, Blade Runner 2049 and Arrival — among the greatest “builders of worlds” in cinematic history.

First noting such legendary filmmakers as Georges Méliès, Walt Disney, Stanley Kubrick, George Lucas, and Ray Harryhausen, Spielberg followed by naming Federico Fellini, Tim Burton, Wes Anderson as part of the class of film’s greatest world builders.

Spielberg also mentioned the world-building prowess of filmmakers Peter Jackson, James Cameron, Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott and Guillermo del Toro before telling Villeneuve, “The list goes on but it’s not that long of a list, and I deeply, fervently believe that you are one of its newest members.”

After getting a strange bit of pre-release publicity over the design of its sandworm-inspired popcorn bucket, Dune: Part Two opened with a massive take of $82.5 million at the domestic box office during its opening weekend, from March 1-3. To date, the film has earned $235.2 million domestically and $342.2 million at international theaters for a combined worldwide take of $577.4 million worldwide.