Though viewers are still making their way through Altered Carbon, Netflix is ready to serve up its next slice of sci-fi goodness in the form of Mute, the fourth feature film from Duncan Jones.
To say that it’s been a long time coming may read as something of a colossal understatement. Work on the pic dates back to 2003, when Jones initially approached Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) about playing mute bartender Leo – a role that would later go to Alexander Skarsgård.
Fast forward to 2018, and all of the pieces have ostensibly fallen into place for what is undoubtedly a passion project for the director. It’s a visual delight, too, as the recent trailer showed Skarsgård’s silent protagonist walking the streets of a near-future Berlin. Speaking of which, we’ve now got a new batch of stills which give us a better look at Jones’ striking vision of the city along with a few dark and bloody moments that are sure to make this one to remember.
Dripping with film noir sensibilities, Duncan Jones has previously described Mute as a “thriller with a very weird tone,” teasing that “it goes very dark, then it also goes very darkly funny. It’s science-fiction urban, so it certainly owes some of its influence to Blade Runner.” That definitely sounds good to us, and the photos in the gallery above only have us that much more excited for the big premiere this Friday.
For those unfamiliar with the project, Mute chronicles the story of Skarsgård’s Leo, who gets caught up in the city’s seedy underworld when his girlfriend, Naadirah (Seyneb Saleh), is abducted by a gang of crooks. And so begins a journey into Berlin’s underbelly as Leo encounters a loud-mouthed surgeon named Cactus Jack (Ant-Man and the Wasp‘s Paul Rudd) and another equally mysterious man who goes by the name Duck Teddington (Justin Theroux).
Look for Mute to land on Netflix on February 23rd.
