Duncan Jones wants to film ‘Mute’ before ‘Warcraft’ drops next summer

Duncan fucking Jones, ya'll.

Duncan Jones. Director of dope-ass Moon and fun-enough Source Code has talked about shooting a cyberpunk film for a hot minute. It seems like he was getting ready to actualize the product. And then Warcraft happened. But thankfully for those of us who have been holding out hope that the project will materialize, it seems Jones want to shoot Mute prior to Orcs and Wizards drops next year.

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Following the success of “Moon,” director Duncan Jones tried to get his passion project “Mute” made, but just couldn’t get all the pieces in the place. It’s ambitious story, a “Blade Runner”-ish sci-fi tale, set in Berlin, about a mute bartender who takes to the streets and clashes with the city’s gangsters while searching for his kidnapped girlfriend (it was also said at one time it would inhabit the same universe from “Moon” with a possible cameo from Sam Rockwell). And while it sounds expensive, Jones had budgeted the pic around $25 million, but for whatever, he just couldn’t get the green light. Eventually, Jones decided to turn the movie into a graphic novel, but he’s still been itching to try and make the movie, and it seems he’ll have another go.

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,” Jones told Empire. “It’s 11 months to sneak in my little indie sci-fi before ‘Warcraft’ comes out. I got ‘Moon’ done in 11 months.”

It’s an interesting statement, because it means that post-production on “Warcraft” is nearing an end, and Jones confirms that with io9 telling them he pretty much has a “finished movie” with only a handful of VFX shots left to do. And beyond this film, Jones says he already has a good idea of “what story we can tell in three films,” so yes, we could be at the start of a “Warcraft” trilogy. But let’s hope that the littler “Mute” doesn’t get lost in the shuffle of franchise excitement.