Denis Villeneuve on developing the Harkonnen homeworld for Dune: Part Two
Recreating infrared images from DUNE: Part 2
Like Dune before it, Dune: Part Two is a feast for the eyes. But even in a film full of alluring images, there is one scene that stands out: the brightly glowing Harkonnen Arena.
Dune's director of photography, Greig Fraser, used special infrared or IR cameras to capture non-visual wavelengths of light and convert them to grayscale. The effect is immediately striking and was a highlight of Dune: Part Two's early trailers, with Austin Butler in a clean-shaven look that only made his pale flesh pop harder against the brutalist grays and strange headdresses of the shrouded figures around him.
But as for why the Harkonnen arena battle looks the way it does, director Denis Villeneuve told Polygon that it was about filling in the gaps that Frank Herbert left behind.
