Finally! At long last it seems as if Duncan Jones’ long-gestating Mute is picking up steam. Ever since breaking out with the terrific sci-fi flick Moon, the director has been teasing Mute as its follow-up. It’s been years though since we’ve seen anything substantial on the project, and in the time since he’s gone on to make the equally impressive Source Code and the upcoming and highly-anticipated Warcraft: The Beginning.
Teased as a Blade Runner-ish film, Jones has apparently been at work on developing Mute for nearly 12 years now. And in a recent interview with Screen Daily, he revealed that the project has finally found its two leads:
“I’ve been working towards making Mute for 12 years now,” Jones told ScreenDaily. “I cannot tell you how thrilled I am that we’re finally going to shoot this utterly unique film. The fact that I get to make it with Alexander Skarsgard and Paul Rudd makes it all the more exciting. Mute is a film that will last. It is unlike any other science fiction being made today.”
Plot details are still scarce on this one, but back when we spoke to Jones in 2010, he told us the following:
There’s a connection with Blade Runner, but I’ve got some ideas that’ll give it its own signature character. It’s set in a future Berlin which may look like a German version of Blade Runner’s Los Angeles, but with a European sensibility…. I’m not sure I’m going to give a particular year because that almost cuts the foundation out of the film’s believability. Rather than having people think, “I don’t think that’ll happen in 50 years or 100 years”, I’m going to say, “This is a possible future…”
Since then, we’ve also heard that the film’s Berlin setting will be “overrun by immigrants” and that the plot of Mute will center on a mute bartender who “encounters an odd pair of American surgeons in his search for his missing love.”
It sounds like Jones’ ambitions for the projects are pretty bold, but if there’s anyone who can deliver, it’s him. Both Moon and Source Code stand as some of the most interesting and thrilling sci-fis of the past decade, and buzz for Warcraft is pretty positive so far. Mute has certainly spent its fair share of time in development hell, but now that the wheels are finally starting to turn, we can’t wait to see what Jones has in store.