The Lord of the Rings record that could signify a major Oscar win for Dune 3
Dune: Part Two may have only won two Oscars, but it did repeat a very specific feat matched by The Lord of the Rings in 2003, which has fans excited about the future of the franchise at the Academy Awards.
The second instalment of Denis Villeneuve's acclaimed sci-fi epic was nominated for five awards at Sunday's ceremony (2 March) including Best Picture. However, it walked away with only two gongs for Best Sound and Best Achievement in Visual Effects.
In an odd case of history repeating itself, these are the exact same two awards that The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers won in 2003, having also been nominated for five Oscars.
This similarity now has fans excited about the prospect of Dune 3, reportedly set to begin production this summer, winning Best Picture just like Return of the King did in 2004. The third Lord of the Rings film won a record 11 Oscars that night, an honour it co-holds with Titanic and Ben-Hur.
The theory about Dune 3 's potential future triumph has been put forward by The Big Picture podcast host, Sean Fennessey, who wrote on X/Twitter on Sunday (2 March) that the identical wins were 'something to keep in mind'.
Dune fans have since been enthused by this factoid. One person tweeted: 'Trust the process. We will be there for the 2027 Messiah sweep.'
A second fan said: 'If Dune: Messiah doesn't pull a Return of the King, the Academy has failed us all.'
A third noted: 'If Villeneuve manages to turn Dune Messiah into a crowdpleasing blockbuster, he deserves more than an Oscar. Perhaps a Nobel prize.'
One thing that could prevent Dune 3 's victory, however, is the fact that the film will be an adaptation of Frank Herbert's second book, Dune Messiah, which proved quite divisive among fans of the series.
The second novel is set 12 years after the events of the first book, with Paul Atreides still serving as Emperor of the Known Universe having unleashed the Fremen's deadly jihad on the galaxy, leaving billions dead.
Atreides, though, begins to realise that despite his position he has become powerless to stop the excessive religious violence that he has authorised.
The novel also sees a bigger role for Paul's sister, Alia, who was briefly played by Anya Taylor-Joy in the previous film. It also curiously welcomes the return of the previously dead Duncan Idaho, who was played by Jason Momoa in the first film.
The book was previously loosely adapted in the miniseries, Children of Dune, produced by the SyFy channel in 2003.
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The Herald Scotland
a day ago
- The Herald Scotland
The Jaws test: We're going to need a bigger boat for political sharks
But what do you know, the kid stayed on the picture, the shark scared the popcorn out of audiences, and the score by John Williams will live forever. The picture won three Oscars. It deserved double. Spielberg went on to his next project, a modest something or other about aliens, and the rest is probably being discussed on a podcast somewhere in the distant universe. The moral of the Jaws story is that things can be turned around. What earns brickbats one day can come up roses the next. There endeth the lesson, or so it seemed. As I watched the film again the other day, it occurred to me that Jaws had more to teach us about modern politics and those who swim in its waters. Let's be topical and start with Rachel Reeves. In the Commons today, just after PMQs, the Chancellor will deliver her spending review. Having U-turned on pensioners' winter fuel payments, Ms Reeves must hope that she can put some distance between herself and the worst decision of any government in its first months in office, far less a Labour one. But pensioners, and Labour MPs, have long memories. That was evident on the doorsteps of Hamilton, regardless of the eventual wafer-thin win. The subject will surface again if Ms Reeves comes for personal independence payments (PIP), a lifeline for so many disabled people. The U-turn on winter fuel could run into trouble. Paying the allowance to all, then clawing it back from some, is a plan that's fraught with difficulties. Ms Reeves will get through today, but she must know this is not over. The idea that she can go into the next election, however distant, as Chancellor, is ridiculous. Such is the ill feeling caused by scrapping the winter fuel payments, nothing less than her resignation will put it right. Even her boss knows that. So no, Ms Reeves. It might look calm out there, but it is not safe to go back in the water. Have a paddle close to shore, and get out at a time that suits you. Another takeaway from Jaws is that all politicians can be placed in one of two categories. The first lot are led by Mayor Larry Vaughn, played in the movie by Murray Hamilton. The elected leader of the fictional Amity Island is worried that the great white terrorising his shores is bad for business. Whatever it takes, he wants everyone back in the water on the 4th of July, having a good time. Warning him in the strongest possible terms against this is police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider). He wants to wait for the experts (Dreyfuss and Shaw's oceanographer Matt Hooper and Navy veteran Quint) to do their thing before he declares the sea safe. Boris Johnson is an obvious Mayor Vaughn. Donald Trump, Nigel Farage, JD Vance, every blowhard who ever appealed for common sense to prevail. Nicola Sturgeon and gender recognition reform is a Mayor Vaughn: wave after wave of supporters, sent to their doom. Her? Didn't even get the ends of her hair wet. John Swinney at the Hamilton by-election: it's only us and Reform out there, nothing to worry about. Total Mayor Vaughn. What of the police chief Brodys? Keir Starmer is one, even if he is clueless at reading the political weather. He will warn against going in the water initially, but then suddenly everything is fine, much like with the economy. Liberal Democrats, Greens - Brodys forever, though the latter cannot be trusted with making the arrangements to close the beach. Whatever the plan, it will cost three times as much and they will screw it up anyway. Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, in Jaws (1975) (Image: free) Moving on to Quint, the grizzled veteran who has seen some sights in his time as a shark hunter and has the 1000-yard stare to prove it. Jim Sillars and Alex Neil come to mind. Know-all Hooper is every young buck who has never had a job outside politics. There are too many of those to choose from. The shark? Take your pick. It could be a person (Putin the obvious choice) or an event (climate change catastrophe). Either way, it's coming, and it's not going to stop till you can see its dead black eyes. Not that this is any reason to change our ways any time soon. Goodness no, we have all the time in the world for that. Jaws had its US release on June 20, 1975. In the UK we had to wait till Boxing Day to see what the fuss was about. It was one of the first films I saw in the cinema and I love it still. The only regret is that it spread misinformation about sharks, even though the term 'fake news' did not exist then. Sharks don't hunt humans. They don't bear grudges. They are not 25 feet long. Spielberg himself told Desert Island Discs in 2022: 'I truly and to this day regret the decimation of the shark population because of the book and the film.' He's done his bit, alongside conservationists, to increase shark numbers. Things can turn out okay after all. If it has been a while since you last saw Jaws, it will be on ITV4 at 9.05pm on Friday, June 20. It's a special birthday screening, all welcome, especially current and former First Ministers. Alison Rowat is a Herald columnist and writer
Graziadaily
2 days ago
- Graziadaily
The $487 Million Film That Ended A Hollywood Marriage - And That $80 Million Divorcement Settlement
As of 10 June, it is 20 years since the film that divided Hollywood first hit cinemas. Before Mr & Mrs Smith , Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston were the golden couple of the entertainment industry, with Pitt the pin up heartthrob and Aniston, 'Rachel from Friends', ever the girl next door. Angelina Jolie, meanwhile, was a maverick action film star who was covered in tattoos, married to Billy Bob Thornton who was 20 years her senior, and famously kissed her own brother on stage at the Oscars. It's almost impossible to cast your mind back to those days given how Mr & Mrs Smith reshaped the cultural landscape. Not because of its gripping action sequences or its plot – it's actually a distinctly average film with a 60% rating on Rotten Tomatoes – but because it marked the end of Pitt and Aniston's marriage and the start of 'Brangelina'. Tabloid fodder at its finest, what was already an uncomfortable situation for the three actors was made worse by the frenzied rivalry whipped up by the media. 'Team Aniston' and 'Team Jolie' t-shirts swept the nation and were famously worn famous faces like Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, tell-all interviews were offered and accepted on both sides, and an unrelenting stream of commentary followed – and in many ways still does. Despite rumours that Pitt and Jolie had an affair on the set of the film, they have always maintained that their relationship did not start until after Aniston filed for divorce in January 2005. They did, however, later admit that they developed feelings for each other while working together. 'It took until the end of the shoot for us, I think, to realise that it might mean something more than we'd earlier allowed ourselves to believe,' Jolie told The New York Post in 2006. 'And both knowing that the reality of that was a big thing, something that was going to take a lot of serious consideration.' When Aniston announced that she and Pitt were separating after five years of marriage, she cited irreconcilable differences and said, 'our separation is not the result of any of the speculation reported by the tabloid media' and that they remained 'committed and caring friends'. Of course, all that stood to change, at least in the court of public opinion, when Pitt and Jolie's romance was confirmed. First via viral pictures of them holidaying together in Kenya and then in July 2005 through their extensive W magazine spread titled, 'Domestic Bliss'. Something that, understandably, riled up Team Aniston. The following September, Aniston spoke out about her divorce for the first time, telling Vanity Fair : 'There are many stages of grief. It's sad, something coming to an end. It cracks you open.' Later adding, 'I would much rather everyone move on. I am not defined by this relationship. I am not defined by the part [the media is] making me play in the triangle.' In January 2006, Jolie and Pitt announced they were expecting a child together, six months after they adopted their daughter Zahara from Ethiopia. Four more children followed to form a total of six and all were present when the couple got married at their co-owned French Estate, Chateau Miraval, in 2014. Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and their children in 2011. (Photo: IMAGO) However, the legacy of this power couple has been tarnished for almost a decade. In 2016, two years after their wedding, Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt citing irreconcilable differences after a fateful private plane journey from France to LA. In 2022, Jolie filed court papers accusing Pitt of drunkenly attacking her and their children during the aforementioned flight, prompting her to file for divorce. She alleges that he grabbed her by the head and verbally abused and poured alcohol on his family during the journey. Pitt has always denied the allegations and was cleared of wrongdoing following an FBI investigation at the time. Nevertheless, the separation marked the start of an eight-year divorce battle that saw Pitt and Jolie in disputes over both the custody of their minor children and their French winery. The latter is still ongoing. Pitt and Jolie are finally divorced, but they are set to meet each other in court next year. They will both be subjected to depositions that may reveal additional personal details about their marriage, including the alleged 'years of abuse' Jolie claims Pitt subjected her to. The trial will also settle the rightful ownership of Jolie's 50% shares of Chateau Miraval, which Jolie sold shortly after filing for divorce. Pitt claims the sale was carried out without permission while Jolie alleges that she attempted to sell her shares to Pitt in the first instance but refused after he asked her to sign a $8.5m NDA to cover up said 'years of abuse'. As for the state of their once picture-perfect family, it similarly hangs in the balance. All six of Pitt and Jolie's children seem to have taken a marked stance with their mother, with several of them dropping 'Pitt' from their surnames. In 2023, their son Pax took to Instagram on Father's Day to share his thoughts about the F1 actor. 'You will never understand the damage you have done to my family because you are incapable of doing so,' he wrote. 'You have made the lives of those closest to me a constant hell. […] The truth will come to light someday.' Even so, anyone following the saga would assume Pitt and Jolie are at least somewhat relieved to no longer be legally married. However, in a recent interview with GQ to promote his upcoming film F1 , which is out on 27 June, Pitt seemed indifferent. 'No, I don't think it was that major of a thing,' he responded when asked if he was relieved that the divorce was behind him. 'Just something coming to fruition, legally.' The Jolie-Pitt clan's dirty laundry is set to air in court in 2026, but Jolie's lawyers have insisted she never wanted their case to go to trial. 'Angelina never wanted any of this,' her attorney Paul Murphy said after a judge ruled that Pitt must turn over documents and communications that Jolie claims will prove he covered up alleged domestic violence. 'She never pressed charges, she left all their properties, and she is the one who tried to sell him the business in the first place. […] She wants this to end, the children want this to end, and Mr. Pitt should focus on healing their family, not pursuing lawsuits.' The legacy of Mr & Mrs Smith has, in many ways, returned to its origins – a toxic, highly-publicised feud with real lives and relationships at the centre. Sadly, this is a story that has not ended well for anyone. As for the 'truth', all eyes will be on the courtroom next year. Nikki Peach is a writer at Grazia UK, working across entertainment, TV and news. She has also written for the i, i-D and the New Statesman Media Group and covers all things pop culture for Grazia (treating high and lowbrow with equal respect).
Time Out
3 days ago
- Time Out
A Pedro Pascal lookalike contest is coming to the LES, and you could get a free year of burritos if you win
Remember the Timothée Chalamet look-alike competition that launched 1,000 ships? It all started late last year with a simple flyer posted around the city: If you look like the Dune actor, show up in Washington Square Park in your best get-up and win $50. What resulted was several hundreds of onlookers crowding the square, armed with cameras and make-shift posters of their phone numbers. But as the real actor made a surprise cameo, this flash-in-the-pan event quickly spurred copycats. Within weeks, more look-alike-contest started to pop off around the city. In November, a handful of blue-eyed and blue-aproned individuals showed up to the same square for a Jeremy Allen White contest, while the Zayn Malik look-alike competition in Bushwick grabbed the attention of more than 500 people. And while the winners receive a buzz of notoriety and a bump of Instagram followers, the top prize is often paltry, $50 here or a free tattoo there (unless you went to the Drake look-a-like competition in Toronto, where the rapper himself gave the winner $10,000). However, this up-and-coming look-alike competition is here to take the cake, er, tortilla: the winner gets a year of free burritos. Even better, the restaurant is calling all New Yorkers who bear a resemblance to the current zaddy of the internet. To celebrate the first anniversary of Son Del North, the Lower East Side restaurant is hosting a look-alike competition searching for twins of the one and only Pedro Pascal. Held on Sunday, June 15th from 12:30pm to 2pm, the resto is inviting the most dashing among us to dress up like the popular actor, whether it's the lone bounty hunter version from The Mandalorian, the gritty, apocalyptic Pascal from The Last of Us, or simply Pedro as the cleaned-up, red-carpet charmer. Judging will be based on crowd reaction, while the final decision will be up to the Son del North team. The top doppelganger will receive the ultimate prize: $50 cash and one year of free burritos, a limit of one per week. The second- and third-place winners will receive gift cards ($50 and $25, respectively), while the top ten finalists will win free bean and cheese burritos. The downtown eatery will be hosting events all weekend long leading up to the contest, including $1 burritos for the first 200 people on Friday, June 13th, and giveaways of free chips and salsa, agua fresca andor zaddy of the month, make a plan for Sunday.
