The black-and-white battle scene on the planet Gidi Prime in «Dune: Part 2» may not have been included in the movie. Its cancellation was prevented by the production process
The director Denis Villeneuve changed the colors of the scene to show life on a planet that orbits a dark sun and does not receive enough light in the visible spectrum. The scene evokes the emotional effect the director wanted and is important in shaping the image of the film’s new villain, Fade Rauta (Austin Butler). Despite the expressiveness and boldness of the scene, she was not changed Warner Brothers when the studio realized what Villeneuve was doing.
Cinematographer Greig Fraser, who won an Oscar for his work on the first Dune film, says that he and Villeneuve decided to keep the footage. «People who weren’t there watched the footage and thought: «What the hell is this?». At the time, there was no way to artificially add color to a scene shot in a certain format. Although Warner Bros. panicked at first, the studio was forced to accept it due to the nature of the production process.
The use of black and white scenes in «Dune: Part Two» was crucial in changing the pace of the story and helped to demonstrate the scale of the universe — the previous segments focused on the vast Arrakis desert. While the first half of the film was not in the least bit boring, it was insistent in its pacing and needed a significant change to indicate that the action would pick up in the second half.
«Dune: Part Two» spends more time exploring galactic politics, including the role of House Harconnen in the manipulations of the Emperor and the Order of the Bene Gesserit. The care with which the scenario describes these nuances is one of the reasons why the success of the movie.
Source: Collider