The very talented filmmaker Duncan Jones has been very busy (good job, Hollywood), but that’s not stopping him from taking on another project: Mute. It’s both new and old for Jones, as it's been a passion project of his for awhile, and an homage to his love of Blade Runner. According to Empire, the filmming will take place during Jones’ 11 month hiatus between Warcraft finishing up (which it nearly is), and its release in June of 2016. Jones told them that,
Dark Horse and Glenn Fabry and myself have been working on the graphic novel for [Mute] for years now – literally years – and there’s a very good chance, if I can squeeze [it in] in these 11 months, that you’ll see the film before you see the graphic novel. It’s 11 months to sneak in my little indie sci-fi before Warcraft comes out. I got Moon done in 11 months.
Mute (co-written by Mike Johnson) is set in a futuristic Berlin, and revolves around a bartender who is lifted while searching for his missing girlfriend. The villains — Rosencrantz and Guildenstern-esque, perhaps? — are a pair of comedians. Although whether or not that story is going to remain the same is not yet known.
A few years ago, Jones told Collider that,
That was the whole idea, to tell a film that can be based in any period, but just HAPPENS to take place in the future. And it’s been very difficult to basically pitch that in a way where people understand why it needs to be done that way. People just say, why can’t it be in a contemporary setting? But no, it’s about mood and atmosphere as much as anything else. It’s also quite dark so it’s been a tough sell. Also, it’s not a big film, it has been designed to be sort of a smaller and more independent film.
Although he also thought it might first be a graphic novel, commenting that,
Although, I can sort of tell you that I’ve been talking to my producer today and we have decided that we’re going to release MUTE as a graphic novel. Because we’ve had so many problems trying to get this film made, you know? The people who are involved with financing films have just been…shy…shy of making the script. So what we decided to do is we’re going to make a graphic novel of it, prove it…prove it to an audience that this works and maybe in the future get the chance to come back and make it.
But luckily for fans, Mute might finally be coming to fruition on screen. Moon was such an exceptional film, and I’m really looking forward to what Jones might do with this new project. And, speaking of Jones, you can also get some updates on Warcraft from these pics we snapped from the Legendary booth at San Diego Comic-Con.
