Neon nightmares and some questionable facial hair feature in the first trailer for Duncan Jones’ highly anticipated Mute, which the director has labelled “Don Quixote” in reference to Terry Gilliam’s continuously delayed project. Alexander Skarsgård – currently riding the wave of praise for his role in HBO’s Big Little Lies – plays a mute barman named Leo in a futuristic Berlin, who sets out to find his missing girlfriend. If the trailer is anything to go by, expect moody close-ups of Skarsgård looking sad, Justin Theroux in a dodgy wig, and some primo moustache action from Paul Rudd.
Mute marks a departure from Jones’ recent projects – Warcraft and Source Code – which have tended to opt for a big budget approach, featuring clever concepts smothered by weak storylines. Jones has referred to Mute as the second film in a trilogy that he began with the much-lauded Moon, in which Sam Rockwell delivered a mind-altering performance as a lonely astronaut suffering from double vision.
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Jones has been keeping fans updated about Mute on Twitter, and recently praised Netflix for granting him complete creative freedom as a director. This display of gratitude may be a subtle nod to Source Code, which Jones seems to have viewed as a distraction from more meaningful work.
The trailer promises much in terms of plot and a bright-light dark city aesthetic, while a score by his Moon collaborator Clint Mansell should lift the film to tense and synth-heavy heights. Jones has enthused about Mansell’s work on Twitter, stating: “I’ve heard the Mute score by @iamclintmansell enough times to be able to say it may well be as good as the Moon score.”
Get a flavour of Mute for yourself below, and look out for it arriving on Netflix on February 23.
