Director Denis Villeneuve has built a special reputation in Hollywood. As the director of movies like Arrival, Blade Runner 2049, and the upcoming Dune, he’s a director of science fiction movies, but also of a certain type of science fiction movie. Villeneuve makes “smart” sci-fi, a more esoteric cerebral type of sci-fi that we don’t see as often on the big screen. It’s made the director a darling of awards season year after year, something which may happen yet again this year with Dune. Villeneuve says that his reputation as an intellectual filmmaker is one that he himself has tried to cultivate, but the reality is he’s just a Star Wars nerd like the rest of us.
