Dune might not have been made if Timothee Chalamet had not agreed to play the lead part.

Dune might not have been made if Timothee Chalamet had not agreed to play the lead part.

Denis Villeneuve claims that if Timothee Chalamet had not consented to play Paul Atreides, 'Dune' would not have been produced.

The 25-year-old actor plays the lead in the 53-year-old director's version of Frank Herbert's sci-fi classic, and the filmmaker has revealed they had no "Plan B" when it came to hiring another actor as the part.

Denis said to Total Film magazine, "We said, 'It's Timothee [Chalamet.'" We didn't have a backup plan. I honestly don't know what I would have done if he had said no. Perhaps there would be no 'Dune.'" 

Meanwhile, co-writer Eric Roth hinted recently that the forthcoming film will be "amazing."

The 76-year-old screenwriter contributed to the script and described his experience on the movie, which stars Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, and Dave Bautista, as "amazing."

"(Working on 'Dune') was fantastic," Eric remarked. Denis and I became soulmates after I did some work for him on 'Arrival.' So when 'Dune' came around, he asked if I wanted to approach it.

And I did, and I wrote a huge, complete, overdone Eric Roth manuscript with some elements that were unique to me. It needed to be trimmed down and tamed, which Denis did, and they ultimately brought in a writer named Jon Spaiths, who is a fantastic writer and who I believe kept it grounded.

"But I believe it's rather fantastic. Denis, he's a visionary in his own right."

Eric also revealed that 'Dune,' which David Lynch adapted for the big screen in 1984, only draws influence from the first half of Herbert's book.

He stated: "It's entirely the first half. Yeah. I didn't know when we started, so I believe I modified a bit more than the first half of the book and began moving towards the second part. But I've watched the movie, and it's mostly the first half."

Roth has prepared a "treatment" based on the novel's second half, but he is eager to go on to other projects in the future.