EXCLUSIVE: Legendary Entertainment has optioned Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen‘s nonfiction book Nuclear War: A Scenario as a potential reteam with its Dune: Part Two director Denis Villeneuve. The expectation is that Villeneuve would take this one as another giant project after he completes Dune: Messiah, which he and Legendary are developing as the conclusion of the trilogy.

Deadline reveals the deal just as Nuclear War hits the New York Times bestseller lists. The book explores a ticking-clock scenario about what would happen in the event of a nuclear war, based on dozens of exclusive new interviews with military and civilian experts who built the weapons and have been privy to the response plans and have been responsible for those decisions should they need to be made.