(Photo: Warner Bros.)

Denis Villenueve’s latest film, Blade Runner 2049 was a mixed success; critically praised, the film failed to do much at all at the U.S. box office. (European audiences were more kind.) Just in case you needed a reminder that, in Hollywood, you’re only as good as your last picture, though, Villeneuve—whose previous elegiac sci-fi film, Arrival, was an Oscar-winning box-office hit—has pledged that his next picture won’t be ā€œan art house filmā€ like his last effort.

ā€œLet’s just say it would not be a good idea for me to make a movie like that twice,ā€ Villeneuve told The Telegraph this week, dubbing the 164-minute movie ā€œa monster.ā€ (Ridley Scott, the director of the original Blade Runner, was supposedly even more blunt, calling it ā€œway too fucking long.ā€) 2049 was nominated for five Oscars this year, but it also ended up putting production company Alcon Entertainment a reported $80 million in the hole.

Villeneuve’s next project is an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune, a project that feels—what with all its spice dreams, noble, piss-drinking desert warriors, and giant Freudian mouth-worms—almost inherently art-house from the jump, so it’ll be interesting to see how well that pledge goes. Villeneuve is still working for the script for the project; all that he’s said so far is that he intends for it to be like ā€œStar Wars for adults.ā€