Chalamet (right) with Josh Brolin in “Dune”
What has Hollywood’s pretty boy Timothée Chalamet been up to these days? His Instagram posts for his 8.7 million followers don’t reveal much.
But the 24-year-old Oscar-nominated (for “Call Me by Your Name”) actor is set to costar with the impressive likes of Benicio del Toro, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Bill Murray and Owen Wilson in the three-story-in-one film “The French Dispatch,” director Wes Anderson’s “love letter to journalists set at an outpost of an American newspaper in a fictional 20th-century French city.” His two other upcoming projects are just as eagerly anticipated. If plans materialize, Elio (Timothée) and Oliver (played by the similarly dashing Armie Hammer) are set to cross paths again in Luca Guadagnino’s sequel to 2017’s “Call Me by Your Name.”
But it’s Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi saga, “Dune,” that is giving fans good reason to be excited these days.
The movie, which has Timothée (as young protagonist Paul Artreides) sharing the screen with Javier Bardem, Zendaya, Josh Brolin, Charlotte Rampling, Oscar Isaac, Dave Bautista, Rebecca Ferguson, Stellan Skarsgard and Jason Momoa, has just teased the actor’s and novel’s followers with two images from “Dune” released a month apart, and posted by Timothée on Instagram.
The first photo shows Paul by the beach as spaceships hover above him. In the second image, Paul gets a helping hand from his weapons teacher Gurney Halleck (Josh) as an ornithopter goes airborne.
Timothée Chalamet
The movie is about “a gifted young man born into a destiny beyond his understanding.” He must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people.
As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence—a commodity capable of unlocking humanity’s greatest potential—only those who can conquer their fear will survive. David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation, starring Kyle MacLachlan and Virginia Madsen, has its own cult following.
To give fans an idea about what happens on the scene with Paul and Gurney, Villeneuve explains, “It’s Paul’s first contact with the deep desert, where he’s mesmerized by it. He has a strange feeling of being home. There’s a lot of action at this specific moment, and [it’s] one of the scenes in the movie that I’m starting to get pretty proud of.”
The first photo generated more than three million likes and almost 61,000 comments, including those from the handsome actor’s costars, who don’t mind showing their fondness for Timothée.
The “Aquaman” star said, “Love u, my boy,” and Josh was just as complimentary, saying, “Yes. Mercurial. Beautiful. You.” In March, Timothée posted a photo of himself beside a bookshelf, which came with the cryptic caption, “OK, fine.” And in his post for IG Stories early this week, the actor is seen taking a selfie outdoors while holding an umbrella with a mask on.