Craig Mazin, the writer and showrunner behind HBO’s Chernobyl and The Last Of Us, has got some spice on his hands. In a recent interview, he revealed that even though he’s largely focused on television now, he did do some work on Dune: Part Two at the behest of the film’s director, Denis Villeneuve.
While talking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast (via The Hollywood Reporter), Mazin shared that he worked on Part Two’s script.
“I’ll work with certain directors when they call because I love them and because they’re so brilliant,” he said. “So if Denis Villeneuve calls, then absolutely. I’m there for three, four weeks—a month—to work on what you’re working on.”
Mazin added that his work on the story took place after the script, written by Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts, was already a complete draft, something that’s common in Hollywoodland. “You come in, you do a little work, and then you leave,” he explained. “It used to be that you couldn’t even say that. But now they have this additional literary material [credit].”
The credit Mazin is referencing is something the Writers Guild of America West put in place earlier this year to give those who come in and work on a script formal recognition. Mazin didn’t go into specifics of what he worked on in the script or any other details of what the movie will be like, though we do have Frank Herbert’s original book, of course, to give us more than an inkling of what to expect.
Dune: Part Two premieres in theaters on November 17, 2023.
