Filmmaker Denis Villeneuve says he is working hard to finish his much-hyped upcoming film, Dune, to meet the December 2020 release date.

Villeneuve's film is still on track to release on December 18.

In a Montreal-based interview promoting the Shanghai International Film Festival, Villeneuve opened up about how the pandemic "crushed" the film's editing schedule, reports indiewire.com.

While the production was mostly wrapped before the quarantine amid the pandemic, Villeneuve had been planning reshoots, which were challenged by the shutdown.

"I was planning to go back and shoot some elements later because I wanted to readjust the movie. I needed time. At the time I didn't know that it would be a pandemic… as we were about to go back to do those elements," he said.

"The impact was that it crushed my schedule right now. It will be a sprint to finish the movie on time right now, because we were allowed to go back to shoot those elements in a few weeks… it meant also that I have to finish some elements of the movie, like VFX and the editing, being in Montreal as my crew stayed in Los Angeles," he added.

Villeneuve shared that the biggest hurdle in getting "Dune" ready has been the editing process.

"As a director there are things that can be done remotely to deal with technology. The supervision of VFX with some equipment is easy to do from afar but, editing, for me, the big lesson from this is I thought it would be possible to edit at a distance," he said," adding: "With my editor (Joe Walker) sharing equipment, being afar from the (one another), but I realise how much editing is like playing music with someone and you need to be in the same room. There's something about the interaction, human interaction, the spontaneity, the energy in the room. I really miss not being in the same room as my editor… it's very, very painful."

"Dune" is official adaptation of Frank Herbert's sci-fi classic of the same name, and features Timothee Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgard, Dave Bautista, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa and Javier Bardem.