IGN’s Path to Dune continues this week with a sneak peek at the creation of the movie’s villains, House Harkonnen.
In an exclusive video that you can view in either the player above or the embed below, Dune director Denis Villeneuve, Makeup & Hair Dept. Head and Prosthetic Designer Donald Mowat, and cast members Stellan Skarsgård, David Dastmalchian, and Josh Brolin talk about the film’s various makeup designs.
Much of author Frank Herbert’s Dune centers around the desert planet Arrakis. Though remote and all but inhospitable, Arrakis is the only major source of the all-important spice Melange in the universe. Whichever house controls Arrakis stands to reap great wealth, but also faces constant danger from rival houses. There's a reason people in the Dune-verse have the saying, "He who controls the Spice, controls the universe."
One of the wealthiest members of the Landsraad, House Harkonnen is the bitter rival of House Atreides. This sinister family is ruled by the cruel, hedonistic Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (played by MCU veteran Stellan Skarsgård). House Harkonnen hails from the bleak, heavily industrialized world of Giedi Prime.
While Baron Harkonnen pretends to be outraged over losing control of Arrakis and its vital spice production to his rival, Duke Leto Atreides, in reality, he aims to use the situation as an opportunity to destroy his enemy once and for all.
Actor Stellan Skarsgård endured hours of heavy makeup to transform into the monstrous, morbidly obese Baron, who is strapped into “suspensors” in order to move (or, more precisely, float) and literally lord over other characters.
“I had long discussions with Denis about where I wanted to go with it and that (the Baron) looked different than he had, a presence that you hadn't seen before,” Skarsgård explained in IGN’s exclusive video.
“It was difficult because I didn't want the Baron to look like a caricature. I wanted to feel the madness of that massive human being and that weight.”
Donald Mowat went to colleagues in Sweden to produce the actual Baron Harkonnen “fat suit”, a process he described, without a hint of irony, as “a huge, huge undertaking.” As Mowat put it, “I knew the Baron would be big, but it really is big.”
House Harkonnen also includes the Baron’s nephew and vicious enforcer “Beast” Rabban, and the cunning and twisted Piter De Vries, the Harkonnens’ Mentat. In this era, advanced technology like computers and atomic weapons are strictly forbidden. Instead, most technology relies on human brain power. Specially trained "Mentats" have conditioned themselves to operate as living computers. Where Beast Rabban offers Baron Harkonnen physical might, De Vries plays a game of psychic warfare between the warring Houses.
Mowat said of the designs for Dune’s antagonists: “The Harkonnens have a clean-shaved face, kind of smooth and eyebrow blockers, which is quite a complex makeup.”
Actor David Dastmalchian, who plays Piter De Vries, praised the designs: “The makeup lends so much to the character. The first time I looked in the mirror when the makeup artist completed the look for the day, I just saw Piter. It was amazing.”
Watch the full video above for more on Dune’s makeup designs, including details on giving Josh Brolin’s good guy Gurney Halleck his distinctive scar from the novel.
For more on the upcoming sci-fi epic, check out our Dune review as well as our previous Path to Dune exclusives breaking down the Gom Jabbar scene, House Atreides, the Fremen, and House Harkonnen.
Dune opens in the US on October 22, October 21 in the UK, and in Australia on December 2.