Son of the late rock legend David Bowie, Duncan Jones has carved out an exceptional reputation in his own right. Director of the low-budget sci-fi darlings Moon and Source Code, Jones proved he could do a lot with very little. He then moved on to the mega-budgeted Warcraft, with, unfortunately, less impressive results (both critically and in the box office). Fortunately, one misstep can’t keep a good director down, and Jones has been hard at work prepping his personal passion project, Mute.
Jones wrote Mute long before Moon and has been discussing the script since his breakout film’s release in 2009. Mute finally got some traction last year with the casting of Paul Rudd and Alexander Skarsgård. Since then, production updates have been few and far between, with only some hints of the project’s Blade Runner-esque tone coming out of Jones’ Warcraft release interviews.
Recently, Jones took to Twitter with a surprise announcement (see below): Mute will begin filming next week!
.@MUTE_Film starts shooting in…. one week from today! :0 pic.twitter.com/hbgQVkPyMR— Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) September 21, 2016
It was long expected that the Dark Horse graphic novel adaptation of Jones’ story would release before the film, but Jones has confirmed that those plans have changed. Jones also confirmed in his replies to the post that, yes, Mute will be related to Moon. It was designed since its origin to share a universe with that film, and will now be the second in a hopeful trilogy set in this Moon-verse. Jones once said that a cameo from Sam Rockwell was planned for a film version of Mute, though it’s possible plans have changed.
The project will be filmed on location in Berlin, and involves a mute bartender fighting city gangsters in search of his kidnapped girlfriend. Despite its futuristic setting, there are no planned appearances by robots, aliens, mutants, or other such sci-fi tropes. Jones says, that at its core, Mute is “a very human story.” Unlike Moon, this will be an ensemble film with, what Jones describes as “a couple of villains in there which I’m really excited about. They’re so different than anything you’ve seen.”
With any luck, Mute will be a return to form for a director with two very human, yet delightfully Twilight Zone-esque sci-fi films under his belt. At least we can rest easy with the knowledge that it won’t be the victim of a rushed development cycle.
Mute currently has no official release date.
Source: Duncan Jones
