Dune’s Making of Book Is So Massive, Hans Zimmer Wrote It a Score

Denis Villeneuve’s Dune is going to be a movie with a massive scale, but it seems that even our wildest imaginations of just how big it could be might be selling it short. It turns out this movie is going to be so epic, so sweeping, so regal, even its making of book will have its very own Hans Zimmer score. For real.

Gizmodo can exclusively reveal that the Oscar-winning composer of Dune (and a few dozen other iconic movies over the past 40 years) was so inspired when he looked at the upcoming behind-the-scenes book from Insight Editions, he decided to write some musical accompaniment. The Art and Soul of Dune, written by the film’s executive producer Tanya Lapointe, will have a dedicated Zimmer score available to download and stream upon release on October 22 — the same date as the film’s debut — and the book will be available both in standard and jaw-dropping limited editions. Now, we’ve got your exclusive first look at both. First, here’s the full cover for the standard edition.

While the standard edition costs $US50 ($68) and features the same in-depth info on the making of the film — from its earliest inception all the way through completion (including interviews with not just Villeneuve, but stars Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, and many others) — the limited edition goes way beyond. That’s why it costs more than 10 times that (retail is around $820). Here’s the package:

Here’s what that buys you: the full edition is limited to 700 copies which are all numbered and signed by the author Lapointe and director Villeneuve, as well as stars Chalamet and Josh Brolin, and the director of photography Greig Fraser. It also features a cloth, foil-stamped cover with Atreides and Harkonnen symbols. There’s an extra companion volume featuring exclusive on-set photography by Fraser and commentary by Brolin that’s designed, printed, and hand-bound in a way that “reflects the aesthetics of the film.” Beyond that, there’s a cloth-bound reproduction of the “Fremkit instruction booklet” prop from the movie, which itself features another 80 pages of exclusive art. Finally, the whole thing is packaged in a big clamshell wrapped in “saifu cloth featuring copper-stamped bespoke imagery based on the Bene Gesserit designs created for the movie.”

Basically, while both editions are Hans Zimmer soundtrack-worthy, the limited edition is like something out of the world of Dune itself, while the standard is a simple, Earth-bound book. Here are a few exclusive looks at what’s inside and the types of details that Lapointe gets into.

The standard edition is available for pre-order now and wherever books are sold. The Limited Edition will only be available on Insight Editions’ website. You can reserve a copy now, while supplies last.