Dune is so vast, even its behind-the-scenes art book is getting a Hans Zimmer soundtrack

Everything about Dune is gonna be big: the all-star ensemble cast, the sweeping vistas of the desert planet of Arrakis, and the general hype surrounding director Denis Villeneuve’s 2021 adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic sci-fi novel. Even the ambition behind the film itself is vast. It’s set to be only the first installment in a planned two-part series from Warner Bros. Pictures.

So when a movie with Dune’s epic scope gets its own behind-the-scenes making-of book, of course that can’t just be an under-the-radar affair, either. Especially in its limited-edition form, which rings in at more than $500, the upcoming production book The Art and Soul of Dune is so huge in its own right that it’s even getting its own accompanying soundtrack from Dune composer (and all-around scoring legend) Hans Zimmer.

Showing off an early preview at the upcoming book — written by executive producer Tanya Lapointe with a forward by Villeneuve himself — io9 revealed that Zimmer was sufficiently swept away by the movie’s planet-sized vastness that he was inspired to score a completely separate original soundtrack, one presumably meant to be enjoyed while browsing the glossy pages of The Art and Soul of Dune.

Via the report, Zimmer’s score will make the ideal backdrop for either version of the book, which comes in a $50 standard edition, or the much pricier deluxe limited edition. The lavish set carries over all the standard version's written content while adding in goodies like a sleek clamshell case ensconced in Saifu cloth, as well as a numbered placard signed by Villeneuve, Lapointe, and stars Timothée Chalamet, Josh Brolin, and cinematographer Greig Fraser.

If there’s a downside, it’s that all this abundance from the House of Atreides is dropping all at once, giving fans a surfeit of sumptuous options when the film releases this fall. Do you put on Zimmer’s book score and browse the pages first, in the hope of letting the opening weekend theater crowds thin out? Or do you make straight for the ticket line and save the book, the music, and all the other upcoming print spinoffs in the Dune-iverse for your post-Dune comedown?

Either way, Dune’s appearance on the desert horizon will be here before you know it. Starring Chalamet and Brolin alongside an enormous cast that includes Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Stellan Skarsgård, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Dave Bautista, and Javier Bardem, Dune is set to spice up the box office on Oct. 22, with a simultaneous home premiere the same day for HBO Max subscribers.