Denis Villeneuve looks back at David Lynch's career

David Lynch, an iconic filmmaker, recently died, and Denis Villeneuve is remembering him in glowing words.

At Saturn Awards, the Canadian filmmaker shed light on the impact of the late director, who also made an adaptation of Dune.

"Cinema is probably the closest artform, closest to dreams, awakened dreams. And David Lynch was definitely the master, the one who brought us closest to this dream state. And I sincerely wish that I had the chance to meet him," he began.

"It would've not been possible to meet him in between both [Dune] movies. I was wishing and dreaming to meet him once it would be finished just to... to pay homage to him," the director continued.

"I'm very sad that he did not have a nice experience with his own adaptation. At the same time, from my understanding, the pain he endured during making his own version of Dune brought to us Blue Velvet, and then Wild at Heart and all the... there was an energy that came out of that," the 57-year-old added.

"So, I don't know, it's very deeply sad that he left us. It's like, you know, there's some filmmakers that when he left, it's like a planet left the solar system. It's really like he was his own planet."

"But there's some comfort knowing that he was still totally alive, totally creative, that he wanted to do another project. He's still here. Anyway, I'm a big fan. Yes," Denis concluded.

A lifetime smoker, David was diagnosed with emphysema, a lung disease, in 2024. He died on Jan 15. He was 78.