Josh Brolin Will Quit Acting If Oscars Snub Denis Villeneuve

Josh Brolin says he will quit acting if Denis Villeneuve isn’t nominated for an Oscar for Dune: Part Two.

The actor starred in the first installment of the sci-fi film in 2021 as well as this year’s sequel playing Gurney Halleck, who mentors Timothee Chalamet’s character Paul Atreides, and he’s adamant the director needs to be recognized at the upcoming Academy Awards.

He told Variety: “If he [Villeneuve] doesn’t get nominated this year, I’ll quit acting. It was a better movie than the first one … when I watched it, it felt like my brain was broken open. It’s masterful, and Denis is one of our master filmmakers. If the Academy Awards have any meaning whatsoever, they’ll recognize him.”

READ MORE: Our Full Interview With Dune: Part Two’s Denis Villeneuve

It comes after the director recently revealed he’s been hard at work preparing for the third movie in the series and insisted the first two films are two parts of the same story while number three, Dune: Messiah, takes place more than a decade after the events of the first two.

He told Deadline: “Let’s say that I thought that after Part Two that I will take a break, that I will go back in the woods and stay in the woods for a while to recover. But the woods weren’t really suiting me, and I would go back behind the camera faster than I think. But that’s all I can say… I’m in the writing zone right now.”

He added of his plans for the third film: “For me [the first two films are] like one entity. It’s a movie made in two parts. It’s finished, it’s done … with Dune: Messiah, I think it’ll be a great idea to do something completely different. The story takes place like 12 years after where we left the characters at the end of Part Two.

“Their journey, their story is different this time, and that’s why I always say that while it’s the same world it’s a new film with new circumstances.”

He added the next movie “will finish the Paul Atreides arc.”