One of the genre’s greatest box-office and critical successes of recent years has been the two Dune movies (2021 and 2024.) Mostly set on the desert planet of Arrakis, the harsh landscape is as much of a part of the movie as the cast and the plot.
This book is a photographic record taken by the photographer, Niko Tavernise, given ‘all-access’ to the filming locations, the cast and the production of the second movie.
This is a book that’s actually difficult to review in text, as it is principally a visual record of the production. As a result, this is one of those books where the text is kept to a minimum – less than a dozen pages out of 264. There’s a Foreword by Austin Butler (who played Feyd-Rautha in the film) as well as a Preface by Greig Fraser, Director of Photography for the movie, as well as an Afterword by Brian Herbert, son of Frank, one of the Producers of the movie and co-author of the many Dune novels of recent years.
There’s also, as is often the case in photography books, a list of captions for each image at the back. Although I think I would have preferred the captions with each individual picture myself, I can’t deny that by presenting just the picture on the page enhances the quality of the image.
The rest of the text is by the photographer about each of the locations photographed and is at the beginning of the chapter explaining how taking the shots went, the benefits and challenges of getting just the right image, from Budapest, Hungary, and Altivole, Italy to the deserts of Jordan and Abu Dhabi.
But really that is how it should be. The focus of the book is upon the imagery, the visual nature of the work. To do this, many photos were taken – Niko says that an estimated 66 000 photos been taken for the film, here condensed to 264 pages. But the selection is superb.
As much of this was taken on closed sets, the book is a glimpse into thinks that the filmgoer does not see. As well as the big epic shots, there’s some more candid images of the production staff and crew, with some seemingly caught off-guard moments between the director Denis Villeneuve and the cast members—including Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, and Florence Pugh.
Some of these show some of the iconic scenes from the movie, but are then stepped back to show that even in these scenes that appear to be isolated desert, there may be a dozen other people – the director, the camera crew, lighting technicians and so on. It’s a fascinating record of how such an epic movie was created.
In short, Dune Part Two: The Photography is not just a visual record of the making of an epic science fiction movie, it is one of those coffee-table books that deserves to be shown to anyone interested in the mechanics of film. With the imagery shown, often startling in its tone and colour (or lack of it – some of the blank and white photos show depth and detail) it’s the sort of book that will draw readers in and impress even casual readers. Fans of the film, though, will love it most of all, as a visual record of a classic film.
© 2025 Mark Yon
Hardback | Titan Books
DUNE: PART TWO – THE PHOTOGRAPHY by Nico Tavernise
October 2025 | 282 pages
ISBN: 978 1835 415 924
