This entry is about a movie that is not yet finished, so we don't yet know how the title appear on-screen.

Aren't you mismatching this with another "Dune" movie or TV show ?

No. This is the 2021 Denis Villeneuve movie. The title was confirmed in the IMAX preview which showed the first ten minutes of the movie. Look it up. Several verifiable sources claim this is the onscreen title.

As long as the movie is not officially out, the title can change. We have to wait until the movie is released.

The movie has been released and the on-screen title is indeed Dune: Part One. The title should be updated.

See my latest post about the rules.

Edit: Sorry about those two comments. I can see now that they were not needed and I have removed them.

I’m not trying to be cute, I’m trying to encourage consistency with the TMDb guidelines. (“When the promotional material use slightly different titles (e.g. Twelve Monkeys vs 12 Monkeys), we try to use the title as it is written in the original on-screen opening credits.”) A movie is not its marketing.

[Edited to remove a remark that doesn’t make sense without the context in an earlier comment that has been edited.]

@lineker wrote:

If any other mods disagree with my assessment here feel free to chime in and we'll discuss (starting a new discussion internally will work as well).

The huge problem with your argumentation is the sentence in the bible that @zmcghee quotes:

"When the promotional material use slightly different titles (e.g. Twelve Monkeys vs 12 Monkeys), we try to use the title as it is written in the original on-screen opening credits."

I don't really care about which title we use on TMDb. But when you make a quite strict rule like that one above, you can't make an exception every time you feel like it for whatever reason. Or you have to change the rule instead, so everyone is aware of how you want it. In this case, it's quite obvious that people are (going to be) confused by how you see it personally and how they interpret the written rule in the bible. I think that's problematic.

On the other hand: I made similar arguments in regards to Wonder Woman 1984 and the movie Run in the past, and nobody really cared about this. So, I'm not sure it's that relevant for many people; as I wrote, I don't really care about what we decide, but I do understand that people are confused by our rule vs. your argumentation.

@janar: I wrote a quick post while just getting back from a trip. Sorry about that.

Here is my better thought out reply: While I agree with you in principal about following the bible, I think the difference here is that these titles are not slightly different at all. Dune and Dune: Part One are not even remotely close. They are hugely different titles that means the Contribution Bible section isn't relevant. I added a line to my previous post to make it clearer.) Edit: unnecessary remark removed.

In my opinion, we should use "Dune: Part One".

• First, because it's the on-screen title.

• Second, because "Dune: Part Two" is planned.

OK, since we are getting away from things here, we need to stop for a minute and look at the rules.

From the Contribution Bible:

The original title is usually the title of the original version of the film when it is first officially released locally.

This was released as Dune in the US. We don't have an official rule about always using the on-screen title in all cases. However, in practice we often tend to go that way when deciding. If anyone has a source showing this title was released in the US as Dune: Part One, I will be happy to review it.

Then the bible explains some additional cases:

When the promotional material use slightly different titles (e.g. Twelve Monkeys vs 12 Monkeys), we try to use the title as it is written in the original on-screen opening credits.

This extra rule is not in play here. I don't see any controversy about keeping Dune as the title.

[Comment removed because @lineker’s edit makes it irrelevant.]

See my latest post about the rules.

Edit: Sorry about those two comments. I can see now that they were not needed and I have removed them.

Edit 2: I'll get back rested tomorrow and revisit.

Thank you, @lineker. I appreciate it.

Here are some sources acknowledging the on-screen title upon release:

• Director interview explaining the title
• Los Angeles Times
• CNET

From the interview with Villeneuve:

"For me it was necessary. ['Dune'] was always meant to be a two-part movie and it was always meant to have 'Part One' at the beginning because I feel like it would be misleading and dishonest to pretend that it's the whole story being told in a single movie. I wanted the audience to understand, right from the start, that they were about to see the first part of a bigger story."

@lineker wrote:

The original title is usually the title of the original version of the film when it is first officially released locally.

This was released as Dune in the US.

In my opinion > that is the main question/controversy here! Was this movie indeed released as "Dune" in US theatres? Meaning: Was the title on screen in those US theatres indeed "Dune" - or was it "Dune: Part One"? I can't state this with certainty; I just don't know. I only know that the title of the digital version that I watched was "Dune: Part One" on screen. So, in other words:

If anyone has a source showing this title was released in the US as Dune: Part One, I will be happy to review it.

This goes both ways -> show me your source that proves it was released as "Dune" in US theatres! I'm not sure how to prove this -> maybe someone can find an illegal cam version of the movie played in a theatre with a screenshot of the title? I don't have time today, but that would be an idea...

This extra rule is not in play here. I don't see any controversy about keeping Dune as the title.

And that's the difference in our opinion about this matter. I think the original title is not a certainty at this point, and that's why this extra rule is indeed in play here. At least, that's how I understand our rule(s).

I'm trying to find a screenshot from a title in an US theatre in the next days, if I find the time...

@janar72 said: Was this movie indeed released as "Dune" in US theatres? Meaning: Was the title on screen in those US theatres indeed "Dune" - or was it "Dune: Part One"? I can't state this with certainty; I just don't know. I only know that the title of the digital version that I watched was "Dune: Part One" on screen.

I can add to this that the movie I saw in a U.S. IMAX theater and that I saw streamed on HBO Max here in the U.S. were both called "Dune: Part One" on screen. (See also this Den of Geek article that mentions explicitly that the title card says "Dune: Part One.")