Here is Spielberg's statement about the film:
“This is truly a visual epic, and it’s also filled with deeply, deeply drawn characters,” Spielberg said. “Yet the dialogue is very sparse when you look at it proportionately to the running time of the film. It’s such cinema. The shots are so painterly, yet there’s not an angle or single setup that’s pretentious … you have made one of the most brilliant science fiction films I have ever seen.”
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Spielberg also praised the effects work on the spice harvesters, particularly compared to the first film:
“Those machines were incredible. I thought the machines were incredible in the first Dune, and I don’t know what you did, but you did something to detail them more this time with the sand falling off the treads, that was awesome … Warner Bros. paid for more pixels, is that right? Because of the success of the first film, it’s good to have more pixels in our business.”
At the start of the podcast, Spielberg said that Villeneuve belonged in the list of great world-building fantasy directors:
“So let me start by saying that there are filmmakers who are the builders of worlds and we know it’s a not a long list, but we know who a lot of them are,” Spielberg said. “Starting with [Georges] Méliès and of course [Walt] Disney and [Stanley] Kubrick. George Lucas, George Pal, Ray Harryhausen … [Frederico] Fellini built his own worlds. Tim Burton, obviously. Wes Anderson. Peter Jackson. James Cameron. Christopher Nolan. Ridley Scott, Guillermo del Toro. The list goes on. But it’s not that long of a list, and I deeply, fervently believe that you are one of its newest members of that list.”
Spielberg asked Villeneuve about working with the cast, and Villeneuve highlighted Zendaya interested in his direction, coming to set and watching him and listening even when it wasn’t her scene:
“There’s someone that spent a lot of time behind the camera listening — Zendaya,” he said. “She’s very clever. I would not be surprised if one day we learn she wants to go behind [the camera].”
Source:THR