Man’s dying wish was to see Dune. Film’s director made that happen months before its release

One Canadian man's end-of-life wish was to see Dune before passing. Director Denis Villeneuve flew an assistant to the man's remote community with a laptop for a private screening.

A palliative care patient’s end-of-life wish was to see the second installment of filmmaker Denis Villeneuve’s Dune before he passed. The Quebec filmmaker and his team rushed to make it happen almost two months before the film’s premiere and just days before the man died.

It began in early January when a middle-aged man who was in end-of-life care in the remote community of Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean in northern Quebec told an end-of-life worker Josée Gagnon that he was a cinephile and really wished he could see the movie before he passed.

“I thought to myself, what can we do? Then my husband reminded me that I could make anything happen. So I posted on social media and we were in contact with Villeneuve’s team within 12 hours,” Gagnon told Global News over the phone on Sunday.

Her post had made its way to Director Sébastien Pilote, who is from the same region, and he put her in touch with Villeneuve’s team.

The film’s producer Tanya Lapointe, who is also Villeneuve’s wife, thought they could either fly him to Los Angeles or have him present at the Montreal premiere.

“I said, ‘You don’t understand, he’s at the end, there’s no way to move him.'”

So the team arranged to fly out Villeneuve’s assistant to the palliative care centre with Villeneuve’s laptop. “It was a race against time because from one day to the next, we didn’t know if he would make it. He only had a few days left.”

The assistant made it. She arrived at Maison de soins palliatifs du Saguenay, had everyone sign a non-disclosure contract and then told the patient to choose one person to watch the movie with. He chose one of the centre’s caregivers.