Denis Villeneuve’s Dune has been rated

Dune
(Image credit: Chiabella James/Warner Bros)

The upcoming adaptation of Dune, based on the novel of the same name by Frank Herbert, is due to arrive next year after the pandemic pushed it from its original December 2020 release slot. So far, our best look at the movie has been a full-length trailer, but now we’ve got another hint at what we can expect next October from the film’s official rating.

As reported by Comic Book, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune has earned itself a PG-13 rating for “sequences of strong violence, some disturbing images and suggestive material.”

While this doesn’t give a lot away, it’s definitely a good indication of the film’s tone. The rating means a wide audience will be able to watch the movie, but we should still expect a bit of grit and edge in line with the trailer.

Dune follows Paul Atreides, played by Timothée Chalamet, whose family rule the planet Arrakis – a desert world that happens to be the source of the drug spice, which massively boosts mental capabilities and can even grant a longer life, as well as being essential for high-speed space travel. An attack on the Atreides family looms, and Paul can see it coming in his visions of the future. There are also giant worms with teeth a-plenty, so expect those to cause a bit of a problem.

Recently, Herbert’s son gave Villeneuve’s adaptation of his father’s work some high praise. “I was very impressed by the trailer, and I was thrilled to actually be on the movie set in Budapest last year, where my wife and I watched the filming of several scenes,” he said. “This is a really big movie, a major project that will forever be considered the definitive film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic novel. Fans are going to love this movie. Denis Villeneuve is the perfect director to do Dune.”

The film boasts an all-star cast including Chalamet, Zendaya, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Jason Momoa, Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin. It will now release on October 1 2021, with a simultaneous theatrical and HBO Max release in the US. For more upcoming blockbusters, check out our roundup of all of 2020 and 2021’s movie release dates.

Molly Edwards
Senior Entertainment Writer

I'm a Senior Entertainment Writer here at 12DOVE, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.