Denis Villeneuve’s Dune scores 10 Oscar nods, including best adapted screenplay

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Roger Frappier has been making movies since 1971 and he’s produced some of Quebec’s most famous films. Critical and commercial hits like Le déclin de l’empire américain, Jésus de Montréal and La grande seduction.

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But it’s fair to say that the 76-year-old Montrealer had never lived a morning before like Tuesday’s. He was in Los Angeles with his girlfriend and members of his family when he learned that his latest film, The Power of the Dog, was nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards. Even better the film, written and directed by acclaimed New Zealand filmmaker Jane Campion, was the leading Oscar nominee, with 12 nominations. They included nominations in three of the four acting categories. Benedict Cumberbatch is up for best actor, Jesse Plemons for best supporting actor, and Kirsten Dunst for best supporting actress.

The two leading nominees for the 2022 Academy Awards, both have strong Montreal connections. Dune is the second-most-nominated film with 10 nods and it is directed and co-written by Montrealer Denis Villeneuve.

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Villeneuve was not nominated for best director but did make the short list for best adapted screenplay alongside co-writers Jon Spaihts and Eric Roth. Dune is also up for best picture. Dune is Villeneuve’s adaptation of the classic 1965 science-fiction novel by Frank Hebert.

The Academy Awards take place March 27.

“It’s overwhelming,” said Frappier, on the phone Tuesday morning from Los Angeles. “I’ve been watching the Oscars all my life and I would’ve never believed to be in the best picture category with such a fantastic film. It’s a great day. Jane has not only kept the essence of this great book by Thomas Savage but she put her own vision of it on this story. The Power of the Dog is 10 years of my life.”

The Power of the Dog is a beautifully-shot, stunningly-acted wrenching drama about two brothers in the ranching biz in Montana in the 1920s. It’s a slow-moving gothic Western, a drama about sexuality and most surprisingly a murder story.

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Frappier read the 1967 novel 10 years ago and immediately fell in love with it. But at the time the rights weren’t available. Frappier kept in contact with the editor from the publishing house, having lunch with her whenever he was in New York and 18 months later, she called to say the rights were available.

I have snapped them up but was still having trouble developing the project. I have tried Sony. It didn’t work. I have tried Amazon. Same thing.

Then came the call that changed his life.

“Three years ago, two weeks before the Cannes Film Festival, I had a phone call at my office in Montreal from a woman with a strange accent, saying: ‘Hi I’m Jane Campion’s agent, I would like to know if the rights of The Power of the Dog are available.’ I nearly fell off my chair.”

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Frappier met Campion — whose films include An Angel at my Table, The Piano and The Portrait of a Lady — at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes and things immediately clicked between them. It turned out both were going to be in Rome a week after Cannes.

“We spent a week in Rome, every morning in the same little café, each one with a copy of the book, discussing the characters and all that,” said Frappier. “It was amazing. There had been so many difficulties bringing it to the screen and suddenly it felt not only possible but in the hands of the right person.”

At the end of that week in Rome, Frappier told Campion the project was hers if she wanted it.

The film is already a big success. It had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, where Campion won the Silver Lion as best director. It had a limited theatrical release due to the pandemic and then premiered on Netflix Dec. 1 where it has done extremely well in numerous countries, according to Frappier. It recently won three Golden Globe awards, for best picture drama, supporting actor (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and best director.

“Even if it’s a period piece, I feel it speaks to our contemporary situation,” said Frappier. “A man who thinks he’s so tough but at the same time he retains all his feelings of him inside of him. And Jane understood the complexity of every character. It’s not black and white. It’s very complex. And I think that’s what makes this movie so great.”

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