Josh Brolin’s hilarious ‘Dune: Part Two’ movie summary, decoded

By Alli Rosenbloom, CNN

(CNN) — Josh Brolin is known as a doting father and movie star of epic proportions, but above all, the man is a gifted wordsmith.

Brolin – who plays Gurney Halleck in the Denis Villeneuve “Dune” movies – took a more creative approach to promoting the franchise’s second installment “Dune: Part Two” this week, by writing a unique summary of the film on social media that reads less like formulaic promotional prose and more like a Hollywood-themed riddle.

“DUNE 2 release is less than TWO WEEKS!!! Robot Lady and Wonka fall in love. Then Elvis tries to f— it all up while his bad dad floats in a pool of pond scum,” Brolin wrote on his Instagram page Tuesday. “The WWE dude from Gardians (sic) gets super pissed while Midsomer (sic) hottie puts the eyes on Wonka Obi Wan just after his Mom gets caught taking LSD in a sandy bathroom. Chigurh still doesnt like the guy from The Goonies.”

Confused? Let’s take a moment to decode which of Brolin’s “Dune: Part Two” co-stars he mentions and what on earth – or Arrakis – he’s talking about in this caption.

To start, we’re going to presume “Robot lady” is referring to Zendaya, based on this futuristic ensemble she wore to the London premiere of “Dune: Part Two” last week. And “Wonka” is obviously Timothée Chalamet, who starred as the famed chocolatier in the 2023 film and leads “Dune: Part Two” as Paul Atreides. (Both “Dune” and “Wonka” are distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, which like CNN is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.)

“Elvis,” of course, is Austin Butler – who still can’t seem to shake that accent after starring in 2022’s Baz Luhrmann biopic on the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll – and Brolin’s mention of “bad dad” is likely a reference to Stellan Skarsgård’s evil “Dune” character Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (who really does float in a pool of scum).

That “WWE dude” from the “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise is Dave Bautista – who plays Glossu Rabban in the “Dune” universe – and the “hottie” is Florence Pugh, who starred in the horror film “Midsommar.”

With us so far? Great, moving on. Rebecca Ferguson is the “Mom” that Brolin mentions in reference to a certain psychedelic, which in the “Dune” universe is actually a fictional drug called Melange.

To finish, Javier Bardem played a the villainous Anton Chigurh in “No Country for Old Men” (and won an Oscar for it), and Brolin himself is the “guy from The Goonies.” Both actors, of course, figure in the second “Dune” installment, hitting theaters next week.

After the cryptic references in his post, Brolin then focused on the magic of the movies to bring things home. “I mean who doesn’t want to see all that on IMAX,” he continued to write, going on to urge his followers to “commune again and experience that amazing feeling of when the lights go down… and DUNE 2 consumes you.”

Christopher Walken, Léa Seydoux and Charlotte Rampling round out the all-star cast of “Dune: Part 2,” which is the sequel to 2021’s “Dune” and focuses on the rise of Chalamet’s heroic Paul Atreides.

The movie franchise is based on the classic 1965 “Dune” sci-fi novel by the late Frank Herbert.

“Dune: Part Two” will premiere in theaters on March 1.

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