Let’s Celebrate The Fact That Duncan Jones is Finally Making Mute

Vendome Pictures

Duncan Jones’ passion project Mute has been a dream for the director for years and is now on track to finally become true with the announcement that Alexander Skarsgard and Paul Rudd have been cast into the lead roles. The Moon director has been working on getting Mute rolling for 12 years, saying “I’ve been working towards making Mute for 12 years now. 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.”

The neo-noir, which takes place 40 years in the future, revolves around a mute bartender who takes on the seedy gangsters of the city in order to figure out what happened to his missing partner. The official synopsis is as follows:

Berlin. Forty years from today. A roiling city of immigrants, where East crashes against West in a science-fiction Casablanca. Leo Beiler (Skarsgard), a mute bartender has one reason and one reason only for living here, and she’s disappeared. But when Leo’s search takes him deeper into the city’s underbelly, an odd pair of American surgeons (led by Rudd) seem to be the only recurring clue, and Leo can’t tell if they can help, or who he should fear most.

Well damn if that doesn’t sound potentially awesome. With Duncan as director as well as having penned the script with Mike Johnson, Mute could shape up to be just as impressive as Moon. Even better, Sam Rockwell has also joined the cast and Clint Mansell will be scoring the picture. Rockwell gave a phenomenal performance in Moon and Mansell was the brilliant mind behind its unforgettable score. With these two forces behind this project as well as Rudd and Skarsgard, Mute could be the top-notch neo-noir sci-fi flick we’ve been waiting for.

The news about Skarsgard and Rudd comes a day after Warcraft’s teaser was released to mostly mixed reactions, and many compared the obnoxious amount of CGI to a video game. What a shame too since Jones’ has so far gifted audiences two very unique films; Moon and Source Code. Despite Warcraft being a departure (hopefully not more a misstep) from his previous work, fans can look more forward to Mute continuing to develop. Little else about the film has been revealed but for now, this concept art (below) from back in 2009 gives a glimpse of the world Mute takes place in. The image is dripping in coolness and intrigue, so here’s hoping Jones’ keeps checking all the right boxes.