Netflix unveils trailer for Duncan Jones’ Mute
David Farnor | On 30, Jan 2018
“Do you know what it is to make your dreams come true?”
Get ready for your new Netflix obsession, as the first trailer has landed for Duncan Jones’ new sci-fi, Mute.
The film is something of an old obsession for the Moon and Source Code director, though, after he first came up with the script over a decade ago. Now, years later, it has landed at Netflix, joining the line-up of the site’s ambitious genre output, from Sense8 to Altered Carbon.
The film takes place in Berlin, in a future that’s close enough to feel familiar. In this loud, often brutal city, Leo (Alexander Skarsgård) – unable to speak from a childhood accident – searches for his missing girlfriend, the love of his life, his salvation, through dark streets, frenzied plazas, and the full spectrum of the cities shadow-dwellers. As he seeks answers, Leo finds himself mixed up with Cactus Bill (Paul Rudd) and Duck (Justin Theroux), a pair of irreverent US army surgeons on a mission all their own. Their resulting journey imagines a world of strange currencies in which echoes of love and humanity are still worth listening to. Co-written by Michael Robert Johnson, the film is produced by Stuart Fenegan. Charles J.D. Schissel and Trevor Beattie are executive producers. You can finally see what the end result is on Friday 23rd February, when Mute is released worldwide on Netflix. You can also watch it in UK cinemas – find out more here.
Here’s the trailer:
Mute is available on Netflix UK, as part of an £9.99 monthly subscription.
Duncan Jones’ Mute will premiere on Netflix on 23rd February
20th January 2018
Duncan Jones’ Mute will finally be released on Netflix on 23rd February, the director has confirmed.
To say the sci-fi movie, from the director of Moon and Source Code, has been a long time in the making is something of an understatement. Referred to be the director himself as his own Don Quixote, it first began back in 2003 with a draft script, set in London and with Sam Rockwell interested in a part – as a result, Jones ended up writing the film Moon just for him.
Family illness, Source Code and World of Warcraft followed, before Netflix teamed up with Jones to make Mute actually happen.
“Mute is an encapsulation of everything I am fascinated by; noir, science fiction, and unique people in trouble because of who and what they are,” said Jones when shooting began in Berlin in 2016.
Set in the near-future, the movie follows Leo (Alexander Skarsgård), a bartender living in the pulsing German capital. Because of a childhood accident, Leo lost the ability to speak and the only good thing in his life is his beautiful girlfriend, Naadirah (Seyneb Saleh). When she vanishes without a trace, Leo’s search for her takes him deep into the city’s seedy underbelly. A pair of wisecracking American surgeons (Paul Rudd and Justin Theroux) are the only recurring clue and Leo is forced to take on this teeming underworld in order to find his love.
The movie is written by Jones and Michael Robert Johnson, with Stuart Fenegan as producer and Charles J.D. Schissel and Trevor Beattie as executive producers.
Now, after months of speculation, Jones has taken to Twitter to confirm that Mute has an official Netflix release date of Friday 23rd February. Watch this space for a trailer very soon – or head this way for a look at the first images from the film.
Duncan Jones’ Mute to be released by Netflix
1st October 2016
Duncan Jones’ Mute will be released by Netflix, one of its stars has revealed.
Speaking to Empire Magazine’s podcast, Alexander Skarsgård said that the long-awaited sci-fi movie will be distributed by the streaming service, with a day-and-date theatrical run on the cards.
“I think they’ll do what they did with Beasts Of No Nation,” he told the magazine, “where they do a theatrical simultaneously to a Netflix release.”
When we say “long-awaited”, we’re not exaggerating: the sci-fi noir has been in the director’s sights ever since Moon, with Jones confirming on Twitter that the movie is conceived as the second part of a trilogy that began with the tale of Sam Bell alone on the moon, with no one but Kevin Spacey’s robot, Gerty, for company.
*cough* love you guys, but Source Code not part of any trilogy! Trilogy is Moon, Mute and a third film after that.
— Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) September 21, 2016
The film began shooting in Berlin on Thursday, with Duncan Jones tweeting this concept art to give a flavour of the Blade Runner-style vibe we can expect:
.@MUTE_Film starts shooting in…. one week from today! :0 pic.twitter.com/hbgQVkPyMR
— Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) September 21, 2016
“I’ve just got back from Dublin where Duncan showed me all the renderings and the visuals of it,” commented Skarsgård, “and I’m very, very excited about it.”
Netflix hasn’t officially announced or confirmed its acquisition of the title, but the news arrives hot on the heels of indie sci-fi flick ARQ, with Jones’ reputation on the back of Moon certainl the kind of acclaim that would catch the streaming giant’s attention.
What do we know about the film?
Back in 2009, Screen Daily reported that Mute is “about a woman whose disappearance causes a mystery for her partner, a mute bartender. When she disappears, he has to go up against the city’s gangsters.”
Jones also told io9 around the same time that the movie would have “very unique” villains.
“There’s a couple of villains in there which I’m really excited about. They’re so different than anything you’ve seen. I hope I get the chance to make the film because they’re going to be very unique, you’re not going to have seen anyone like these two guys before,” he revealed.
“It’s a very human story, it’s about normal, normal people having to live in this future city. Science fiction is more of a backdrop, in some ways, than you might expect. But I like that, because … if you allow [science fiction] to be in the backdrop and not be what it’s all about, then the humanity is what you’re really concentrating on and looking at. You see why people are the way they are, and how they’ve maintained their humanity in these science-fiction settings. Or the opposite, why their humanity starts to be eroded. When they started to lose their humanity because of the world that they live in, and that’s what this film is going to be about.”
Mute is set in a dystopian Berlin 30 years in the future. Skarsgård plays Leo Beiler, a mute bartender who has to track down his missing girlfriend. “It’s about a guy who was in an accident as a kid,” explains the actor. “He’s ex-Amish, so he lives a very monastic life: he doesn’t have a cellphone or anything like that. He’s left the [Amish] community but he still kinda follows the rules.”
And what of the Moon crossover? Will Sam pop up here? “Maybe,” Skarsgård teased.
Other cast members who are confirmed include Paul Rudd and Gilbert Owuor, with Clint Mansell on composing duties.