How a village was created in the Abu Dhabi desert for Dune: Part Two

Both Dune films have relied on Abu Dhabi’s Empty Quarter to depict the planet of Arrakis.

While the first installment – released in 2021 – comprised five days of filming in the emirate, the production team spent almost a month in the desert for the sequel.

It was not just the photogenic landscape, the sandy dunes rolling into the horizon, that lured the film back to Abu Dhabi. That was a definite selling point, of course, as most of Dune takes place in a desert planet and the Empty Quarter is arid, expansive and lends itself beautifully to the film.

But there were other factors that…