Forget what you think you know about what Duncan Jones is directing next, because it certainly aint ‘Mute’. The director of 'Moon' has mentioned the project on a number of occasions before and had said he planned it to be his next film after the soon to be released 'Source Code'. However, his plans have hit a snag as he is struggling to get people interested in the idea.
The premise of 'Mute' that in future Berlin, a woman's disappearance causes a mystery for her partner, a mute bartender. He must go up against the city’s gangsters to solve the mystery. Jones descibed it as
"another science fiction film...which takes place in a future Berlin. It's a Blade Runner-inspired piece, a little love letter to that film."
Apparently studios are having a hard time getting their heads around the fact that it is a thriller which just happens to be set in the future as opposed to an out and out sci-fi. Those damn unimaginative studio execs!
Here's what Jones has to say about the film's development struggles in a recent interview-
Well it’s in a bit of a limbo actually. I’ve always loved the script and felt it was a film worth making, but it’s a tricky one. It’s a sci-fi film, and one of the drafts of the scripts got leaked a while back. The reaction was mixed. Most people didn’t get the fact that yes it is sci-fi but it’s a futurist film. It’s a thriller that happens to take place in the future, it’s not some amazing piece of technology that ya know the world is depending upon and the whole story revolves around some particular piece of technology or some sci-fi hook.
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. Budget wise, it’s in between Moon and Source Code.
I just need to get away from it for a while. I’ll come back to it one day and hopefully it’ll work the way I see it working. In the meantime, I have another project that I’m very excited about. It will address what people expect from sci-fi films but still does what I want it to do, and still has the heart and energy that I’d wanna see in a sci-fi film."
source-http://www.firstshowing.net/2011/duncan-jones-mute-stalled-but-homage-to-blade-runner-is-next/
February 07, 2008, 11:54:01 AM
