Close Ad

A Fans Dying Wish Was to See the Latest Unreleased Dune Film - So the Director Sent Him His Laptop
Dune Director Fulfills Fan’s Dying Wish of Watching Unreleased Movie
Uplifting News

A Fans Dying Wish Was to See the Latest Unreleased Dune Film - So the Director Sent Him His Laptop

"It's for him, it's for that man that we make films," Villeneuve said.

*Featured image contains photo by Tima Miroshnichenko

The sci-fi saga, Dune: Part 2, may be shattering the box office, but it's the director's heartwarming deed for a terminally ill man that is shattering our hearts.


Six weeks before the movie's release, Denis Villeneuve received an impassioned plea from a palliative care worker in Quebec, Canada (where, coincidentally, Villeneuve is from). A middle-aged man in end-of-life care wished he could see the movie before he died.

However, with only days left to live, it seemed unlikely.

But then, Villeneuve's assistant showed up at his bedside.

How a Facebook Post Grabbed the Attention of Dune’s Director

According to her Facebook page, L'Avant, Josée Gagnon is a palliative support worker in the business of creating magical moments for terminally ill patients and their families.

Although this one seemed completely outside the realm of possibility, she knew she still had to try.

Gagnon took to social media for help.

"Hi FB Friends!" she wrote. "I would like to pull a magic trick for someone at the end of their life. Would anyone be able to put me in contact with filmmaker Denis Villeneuve (director of Dune) by chance????"

"I know it's ambitious but I've always succeeded in my crazy ideas so, I'm dark with naivety and hope. Know anyone who knows anyone???"

Josée Gagnon via Facebook

Miraculously, twelve hours later, she got a response.

A Race Against the Clock

Turns out, the world is actually a pretty small place. One guy, Sébastien Pilote, knew a girl, Tanya LaPointe, who just so happened to be one of the movie's producers...AND Villeneuve's wife.

At best, Gagnon hoped Villeneuve would send her patient a video like, "Thanks for liking my movies blablabla... "

He did send a video...of the ENTIRE MOVIE.

As soon as LaPointe told her husband about the man, the duo got to work on making his wish come true.

Initially, they wanted to fly him to either Los Angeles or Montreal for the movie's premiere.

However, after Gagnon told them, "You don't understand, he's at the end, there's no way to move him," they quickly moved to Plan B.

On January 16, ten days after Gagnon's Facebook post and six weeks before the movie's official premiere, Villeneuve's assistant hopped aboard a plane, her boss's personal laptop in hand.

She made it in the nick of time.

A Man Gets His Dying Wish

After non-disclosure contracts were signed and cell phones turned over, the assistant told the man he could choose one person to watch it with. He chose one of the center's caregivers.

"She took everyone's phones away and played the movie on the laptop for just the two of them in his room. Neither she nor I watched it. It was just really big deal," Gagnon told Global News.

"I was told even the President of the United States wasn't able to see it before its release."

Despite being too weak to watch the movie to the end, Gagnon said "It didn't really matter."

What mattered was that people took the time and effort to honor his final wish, and by doing so, they honored him.

"This man who had had a very difficult start to life saw extremely important people mobilize to fulfill his final will....this was worth all the gold in the world," she wrote in an update.

Sadly, he died a couple of days later.

The Impact of Art and Storytelling

Villeneuve's decision to fulfill a stranger's dying wish over commercial considerations speaks volumes about the kind of man he is and why he creates films in the first place — for the fans.

But even more than that, the fact that a dying man's final wish was to see a movie showcases the profound impact art can have on our lives.

Of everything he could have asked for, he chose three hours of pure, cinematic magic.

"He is precisely what movies are made for."

Denis Villeneuve

Villeneuve gave the man a gift, but in the end, he's the one who received the greatest gift of all: the chance to honor someone in their final act.

Hot Stories

Why Jennifer Hudson Forgave Her Mother's Killer -- Life Stories By Goalcast

At the peak of her career, Jennifer Hudson faced a horrific family tragedy. Hudson's mother and brother were brutally attacked in their family home, and her seven-year-old nephew was kidnapped. What followed was a heart-wrenching manhunt to rescue her nephew and seek justice against the man who took her family. Hudson speaks from the heart in this video on what happened to her family and how she was able to move forward.

Celebrities
People smiling in unison united
Racism Quotes

Racism is considered the marginalization and/or oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges another race. The term is applied in many areas of a society that perpetuates discrimination on the basis of race or strengthen racial inequalities in education, health care, income, and civil rights.

Ever since the 20th century, the concept of biological race is considered a cultural invention that has no scientific basis. The progress over the past half-century has been impressive, but the nation still has a long way to go to reach true racial equality.

Keep ReadingShow less
Everyday Heroes
hands are put together as part of community volunteer efforts
Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash

A community is so much more than people sharing a space. It's a living, breathing network of connections and shared experiences. While it's usually defined as “a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common,” true community runs much deeper than that.

Diversity

Keep ReadingShow less
Quotes