Sometimes real life can be sweeter and kinder than the movies portray it to be. So, despite the hard and fast rule of keeping feature films secret until release day, one director knew that it needed to be seen just once before its premiere on the big screens.
The highly anticipated “Dune: Part Two” found its way into the hands of a single audience member, before its official showing in public. What led to the film’s extraordinary story, begins with a simple wish from a terminally ill man. In his 50s and living in a palliative care facility, he expressed a last wish that seemed impossible to fulfill: he wanted to see the sequel to “Dune” before he died.
“The movie buff said he would like to see the film “Dune: Part Two”, before he died,” revealed Josée Gagnon, whose charity L’Avant specializes in granting end-of-life dreams. When she learned of his wish, she began a frantic quest to make his wish come true, even though the film hadn’t been released yet.
Director Denis Villeneuve, right, and producer Tanya Lapointe attend the premiere of “Dune: Part Two” in Montreal. Photo by Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
Using social media, Gagnon posted, “I would like to make some magic for a person at the end of their life,” said the charity’s post. Time was of the essence, the post said, because the person had only “a few more weeks left.” It worked. The post managed to reach filmmaker Sébastien Pilote, who was moved by the request, and helped facilitate communication with “Dune: Part Two” director Denis Villeneuve.
Villeneuve and his wife, Tanya Lapointe, immediately expressed that they wanted to make the man’s dream a reality. Gagnon said that Villeneuve and Lapointe, an executive producer of “Dune: Part Two,” were “extremely touched by this man’s last wish” when they spoke. “They told me, ‘It’s precisely for him that we make films,’” she said. Gagnon has declined to release the man’s name for privacy reasons.
At first, Villeneuve and his wife had hoped to fly the man to either Montreal in Canada, or to Los Angeles. However, Gagnon said that was impossible. She told the pair that it was “impossible” because he was “too weak.”
Time was passing. The dying man was dying,” Gagnon said.
Despite logistical challenges, Villeneuve’s assistant embarked on a mission, flying to Quebec with the director’s laptop in tow. “They locked themselves in a room at the Maison de soins palliatifs […] and this man managed to watch the film on his own,” shared Gagnon, detailing the secrecy surrounding the screening.
The movie poste for “Dune: Part 2”.
The screening, conducted more than six weeks before the movie’s official release, was a poignant moment, filled with both joy and sorrow. “He was so weak that we thought he might die while watching the film,” Gagnon said. The man, with curtains drawn and one friend with him, began to watch the film.
He was in pain and saw only about half of it before he had to stop, Gagnon said. He died a few days later. Reflecting on the bittersweet outcome, Gagnon emphasized the significance of the experience, dismissing any notion of failure.
The ending of a film when you’re going to die, it doesn’t mean anything… it was all there for him,” she said.
When others at the charity felt as if they failed because the man hadn’t been able to see the film’s conclusion, Gagnon had a message for them. Missing the ending “didn’t matter,” she said. The man had a “very difficult start to life” and saw people around him — and those who didn’t know him — work to carry out his final wish.
And that, Gagnon wrote, “was worth all the gold in the world.” Now, she said, “People have to continue to believe that everything is possible when it is done with heart.” She said that she plans to see “Dune: Part Two” soon. “I’ll smile like an idiot the whole time thinking about this beautiful story,” she said. “Thinking of him.” Watch below, as Villeneuve discusses his new film on the “Late Show with Stephen Colbert”.
Sources: Washington Post | CBC
