Clearly Villeneuve understood that when you’re working with filmmaking geniuses, it’s good to get as much of their input as possible.
Roger Deakins, with whom Villenueve worked on Prisoners and Sicario, is arguably the greatest cinematographer of all time, with 13 Academy Award nominations to his name (Note: he needs to finally win for Blade Runner 2049); and Dennis Gassner’s impressive resume includes four Oscar nominations (Barton Fink, Road To Perdition, The Golden Compass, and Into The Woods) and a win for 1991’s Bugsy.
Given the quality of the finished product, it’s clear that this extra bit of collaboration certainly didn’t hurt the film and probably only helped — but it is worth pointing out that Denis Villenueve wasn’t exactly working with a couple of slouches.