Later this year, Netflix is bringing some major firepower to its original movie lineup with Mute, the latest film from director Duncan Jones. While Jones helmed last summer’s adaptation of Warcraft, Mute appears to be more along the lines of Jones’ earlier films like Moon and Source Code. (It may even include overt references to one of these movies!) Netflix has released the first three photos from Mute, and we’re intrigued by its Blade Runner-esque futuristic setting.
Alexander SkarsgÃ¥rd, former True Blood star and the big screen’s most recent Tarzan, is the leading man of Mute, playing a character named Leo who was rendered unable to speak as a child. When the movie begins, Leo is working as a bartender in Berlin when his girlfriend, Naadirah (Seyneb Saleh) disappears under questionable circumstances. To find Naadirah, Leo will be forced to explore Berlin’s darker corners, where he will encounter two “wise-cracking American surgeons” as played by Paul Rudd and Justin Theroux.
Admittedly, the photos don’t offer too many additional clues for the story, but Rudd’s character appears to be acting somewhat inappropriately around a dead body if that martini glass is any indication. Netflix’s description of the film’s plot kind of reminds us of Dante’s Inferno, since it notes that the surgeons “are the only recurring clue” to Naadirah’s whereabouts as “Leo is forced to take on this teeming underworld in order to find his love.”
But perhaps most intriguing is the Easter egg in this last photo. If you look closely, and you’re a big enough fan of Jones’ Moon, you might spot a familiar message: “Free the 156,” a reference to (to keep this vague for the yet uninitiated) the film’s ultimate plot turn regarding star Sam Rockwell’s character’s identity.
Jones co-wrote Mute with Michael Robert Johnson, and Netflix has confirmed that it will premiere in 2017. However, a specific date was not included with the announcement.
What do you think about the first glimpse of Mute? Speak now and leave a comment below!
Images: Netflix
