Casting news just dropped for director Duncan Jones’ new science fiction thriller, and it’s two of our favorite fantastical leading men. Plus we’ve got a Mute synopsis. Deep breaths.
It’s no secret that we loved Duncan Jones’ Moon ‘round these parts, and that we’re excited for his upcoming project, Mute. Well, we just got wind of the casting, and could it be better?
True Blood vamp (and soon-to-be Tarzan) Alexander Skarsgard will play the main character, a mute bartender. Everyone’s favorite Ant-Man, Paul Rudd, will play a possibly shady surgeon. Here’s what we know:
Berlin. Forty years from today. A roiling city of immigrants, where East crashes against West in a science-fiction Casablanca. Leo Beiler (Skarsgard), a mute bartender has one reason and one reason only for living here, and she’s disappeared. But when Leo’s search takes him deeper into the city’s underbelly, an odd pair of American surgeons (led by Rudd) seem to be the only recurring clue, and Leo can’t tell if they can help, or who he should fear most.
Mute is based on a script by Jones and Mike Johnson, and has long been a passion project for Jones
If this weren’t enough casting awesomeness to bask in, Producer Stuart Fenegan said, “I look forward to going on this journey with them, and also reuniting with Sam Rockwell and composer Clint Mansell...can’t do sci-fi without Sam and Clint!”
So it looks like we’ll be seeing Sam Rockwell, star of Jones’ Moon and all-around badass, cropping up somewhere in Mute. But really, they had us at “science-fiction Casablanca.” This is a tall order, but if anyone might be able to pull it off, it’s Jones—and the casting news gets us off to a promising start.