Duncan Jones‘s long-awaited original sci-fi movie, Mute, looks like a cross between Drive and Blade Runner. Set 40 years in the future, it stars Alexander Skarsgård as a mute bartender whose girlfriend goes missing in Berlin.
Characterized as a “spiritual sequel” to Jones’ acclaimed 2009 film Moon, Mute is still pretty mysterious. Jones has been teasing the film for years, and this trailer is our first real look at the finished product. It’s got a definite cyberpunk vibe, with Skarsgård’s character traveling through a neon-lit city and encountering an ensemble cast including Sam Rockwell, Paul Rudd, and Justin Theroux. But where do the sci-fi elements come in, aside from the seemingly obligatory robot strippers? You’ll just have to wait and see.
Mute marks Jones’ return to lower-budget filmmaking after Warcraft, and it’s something of a passion project for him. Fans of Moon will no doubt be excited to see how this turns out, although for now, it’s very hard to judge Mute from the trailer.
The premise sounds like pretty standard action thriller fare (“man fights gangsters while looking for his missing girlfriend”), and it comes out less than a month after Netflix’s other Blade Runner-influenced cyberpunk noir, Altered Carbon. Fortunately, there’s probably more to this movie than meets the eye, beginning with the puzzling fact that the two main supporting characters are both surgeons.
Mute arrives on Netflix on Feb. 23.