A 55-Ton Spaceship, Buried in Rain: Inside 'Dune: Part Three'

Patrice Vermette built a 55-ton spaceship for "Dune: Part Three," buried it underground, and rained on it for an entire battle sequence. He calls the result "worth it." The film opens Dec. 18, with Timothée Chalamet returning as Paul Atreides, now emperor, in a story set 17 years after "Part Two" and inspired by Frank Herbert's novel "Dune Messiah."

Vermette, this year's recipient of Variety's Creative Impact Award at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival, promised the finale will be "a major spectacle." He offered a comparison rather than a spoiler. "You know when you go see fireworks, and they put everything in, and at the end, it's 'Oh, we have this one.' It's going to be like that," he told Variety's senior artisans editor Jazz Tangcay.

What did the opening sequence take?

Director Denis Villeneuve gave Vermette one directive: "not to repeat sets." Vermette didn't. His illustrations for the opening showed "an expanse of black sand and ships attacking a planet" — a "crazy idea," by his own admission.

The execution was pure logistics. The team built a single ship, visible 360 degrees inside and out. Every two days a crane arrived to lift it. Spider rigs and touch spinners (rain-making equipment) kept the water coming; a pump system kept taking it out. That's a 55-ton prop on a cycle of lift, soak and drain.

The pair have a working motto: "Let's challenge each other. Let's make it different." Or, as Vermette put it, "The fun thing about working with Denis is we never want to repeat ourselves. Even though we're in the same world."

How did Vermette and Villeneuve finally meet?

The partnership nearly happened twice before it did. The two shared friends and shot commercials together in the early 2000s, but feature schedules never aligned. Then a delay intervened. "I was supposed to do 'Dallas Buyer's Club,' and Jean-Marc Vallée tells me, 'Patrice, that movie's going to be pushed a year,'" Vermette recalled. Villeneuve heard, texted him, and, Vermette said, "That text message changed my life." Their first feature together was 2013's "Enemy," Villeneuve's first English-language film.

Vermette's grounding came from music videos, where he discovered his comfort zone: "I understood the vision of the director." It also gave him an adrenaline rush.

When Villeneuve proposed "Dune," Vermette knew the material was personal. "He started storyboarding for it when he was 15. He knew exactly where he wanted to be," Vermette said. After 100 script pages and a reread of Herbert's book, he filled notebooks — guided by one principle: "things need to have a reason to exist. Whether it's 'Sicario,' 'Enemy,' 'Dune' or 'Arrival,' it needs to tell a story. If it's an object that exists in this fantasy world, it needs to be grounded in reality."

The "Dune" builds ran from the Harkonnen world of Giedi Prime — inspired by industrial septic tanks — to the Atreides Castle and Arrakis's Imperial Nexus Laboratory. The lab, shot with cinematographer Greig Fraser, was executed without cheating sunlight. Vermette's conclusion: "Moral of the story: never give up on crazy ideas."

What did the 10 Artisans to Watch say?

The same festival hosted Variety's 10 Artisans to Watch panel, and the takeaway was blunt: collaboration across departments makes films work. "Our favorite films and TV series are not created by soloists," said Kathleen Radomski, chair of production design at SCAD. "They take a village."

This year's honorees spanned sound, animation, editing, casting, makeup, costume and design:

• Anne Jimkes, supervising sound editor, "The Mosquito Bowl"
• Aulo Licinio, animation supervisor, "Project Hail Mary"
• Landon Lott, art director and concept illustrator, "Pluribus"
• Blair McClendon, editor, "Clarissa"
• Adam Newport-Berra, cinematographer, "The Invite" and "Club Kid"
• Raül Refree, composer, "La Bola Negra"
• Jessica Ronane, casting director, "Elsinore"
• Allie Shehorn, makeup and special effects head, "Obsession"
• Grace Snell, costume designer, "Sense and Sensibility"
• Danny Vermette, production designer, "Backrooms"

Each had a concrete lesson. Lott's ice hotel in "Pluribus," modeled on real Norwegian ice hotels, had no single author. "There wasn't just one person that designed this set," he said. Jimkes worked with director Peter Berg to balance loud sound and silence, aiming for "as authentic as possible of an experience for both the actors and the audience." McClendon, attached to "Clarissa" before shooting, credited early dialogue with directors Arie and Chuko Esiri. Refree scored "La Bola Negra" while the script was still being written, at the request of directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, and watched Penélope Cruz build her singer from the inside out.

Licinio faced the strangest brief: animating an alien named Rocky from scratch for "Project Hail Mary." After consulting Andy Weir's novel, the team studied Charles Chaplin and Buster Keaton "to see how body language would evolve into getting into performance."

What about the money?

Budget was the shared enemy. "There's this pie in the sky of what you want to do and then what you end up actually doing due to budgetary constraints," Lott said. Shehorn's gore effects in "Obsession" got exactly two takes. Danny Vermette's "Backrooms" ran short on rug — a second, slightly different tone became a symbolic transition negotiated with director Kane Parsons. Snell styled "Sense and Sensibility" with contemporary touches so audiences "could actually see yourself in these characters."

The closing advice was less gentle. "Think like a filmmaker," Jimkes said — learn budgets, story and every department's language. Lott quoted Nike. Danny Vermette went further: "Always be making shit. Just keep going. Grab your buddies, go make a film. You don't get good by sitting around wishing to be good."

Whether "Dune: Part Three" lands as the final firework Vermette promises, audiences decide on Dec. 18.