One look at a list of Oscar Isaac’s best movies will tell you how versatile an actor he is. His world-weary yet hopeful performance in the aforementioned “Inside Llewyn Davis” is miles removed from his confident portrayal of the cocksure Poe Dameron in the “Star Wars” sequel trilogy. The man can do it all — something of which Denis Villeneuve was no doubt aware when Isaac emailed him about a role in “Dune.”

In the book “The Art and Soul of Dune,” the actor, who it turns out is a big fan of Frank Herbert’s “Dune” books, recalls reaching out to Villeneuve after learning the director was working on the movie. “I actually wrote Denis when I first heard he was directing Dune,” Isaac tells author Tanya Lapointe. “I said, ‘I love ‘Dune.’ I love this book. Just throwing it out there.’ He replied, ‘You love Dune. Interesting…’”

According to Lapointe, Villeneuve had followed Isaac’s career and was specifically a fan of his performances in “Inside Llewyn Davis” and “Ex Machina.” The director even claimed that he had been “wanting to work with Oscar for a very long time,” and that the actor just happened to “fit the exact description of Duke Leto in the book.” In the book, the Duke is described as “tall, olive-skinned,” and with a “thin face” that “held harsh angles” and was “warmed only by deep gray eyes.” Herbert also writes that Leto’s face was “predatory: thin, full of sharp angles and planes.” With that in mind, I’m not sure Villeneuve’s comment about Isaac matching the description of the Duke from the books is the most flattering, but the actor was surely too excited about being a part of the project to care.