“Watching all the world and war torn”
Film director Duncan Jones (whose father is the successful British rock star/actor/etc., David Bowie), has been a very busy man recently.
Today the first trailer for his latest film, WARCRAFT, is released (http://smarturl.it/WARCRAFT1stTrailer), and work is well underway on his next project, MUTE.
Our good friend @Unklerupert has kindly supplied us a brief summary of Duncan’s activities. Over to you Unk…
‘Where are we now?…’
So sang David Bowie on his surprise return on January 8th 2013, this was also the question asked at the beginning of Duncan Jones’ feature film debut MOON in 2009. A stunning debut that went on to garner much critical success winning multiple awards worldwide including the prestigious BAFTA for Outstanding Debut By A British Director, a promising new British film director had arrived. Duncan stepped up in budget and scale with his follow up ‘Source Code’ starring Jake Gyllenhaal released in 2011, 5 years ago, so some may be once again asking “Where are we now?” with regards to Duncan’s career. Some of you may know Duncan stepped up in budget and scale once again when he was chosen in 2013 to direct the big screen adaptation of Blizzard Entertainment’s phenomenally successful MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) World of Warcraft.
Starring Travis Fimmel, Toby Kebbell, Ben Foster, Paula Patton, Clancy Brown, Daniel Wu, Dominic Cooper, Ben Schnetzer, Ruth Nega & Robert Kazinsky, WARCRAFT was shot over 123 days from January 20th 2014 to 23rd May 2014 and is ‘a spectacular saga of power and sacrifice in which war has many faces’ based in the fantasy realm of Azeroth. Featuring the best in the business on duty for special effects both practical (Weta Workshop) and computer graphics (Industrial Light & Magic), WARCRAFT brings the world of World of Warcraft alive for the first time on the big screen to tell the story of the first encounter between Humans and Orcs setting the stage for a potential Trilogy, something Duncan discussed recently at San Diego Comic-Con 2015:-
“We have a movie we’re very proud of. I don’t think anyone is going to be disappointed after this, and if it goes well I’m pretty convinced that Chris Metzen from Blizzard and I have a very good idea of what story we can tell in three films given the opportunity”
WARCRAFT is pretty much complete now ready for release on June 10th 2016, Duncan and the gang have worked hard to ensure it’s a film that will appeal to everyone as well as the massive existing worldwide World of Warcraft fan base, and as he said back in 2010, spookily enough:-
“I really believe World of Warcraft could be the launch of computer games as good films, it’s about creating the world of the game and investing the audience in that world.”
To wet your whistle, the very first WARCRAFT trailer has just been released: http://smarturl.it/WARCRAFT1stTrailer
It’s around seven months until the release of WARCRAFT, and with it being almost complete, what’s a film director to do while waiting for the release and promotional campaign? Why make another film of course! Duncan also let slip during interviews at San Diego Comic-Con 2015 that he was trying very hard to finally make MUTE, a return to sci-fi and as Duncan himself has described “a love letter to Blade Runner”. MUTE has been bubbling away for many years and was initially planned as the follow up to MOON. Written by Duncan, MUTE is set in the same fictional universe as MOON. Duncan has often compared getting MUTE made to the experience Terry Gilliam has had getting his version of Don Quixote made, fraught with setbacks (would very much recommend Gilliam’s Lost in La Mancha documentary for those that have not seen it).
Well, Duncan popped over to Berlin last month on a location scouting mission and it was announced on Monday 2nd November that MUTE is indeed the next film on Duncan’s slate. Paul Rudd (ANT-MAN) will be joined by Alexander Skarsgard (TARZAN,TRUE BLOOD) in the title role, for the sci-fi thriller MUTE. But what’s it all about I hear you think…
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.
Duncan is quoted in the press release for MUTE as saying:-
“I’ve been working towards making MUTE for 12 years now. I cannot tell you how thrilled I am that we’re finally going to shoot this utterly unique film. The fact that I get to make it with Alexander Skarsgard and Paul Rudd makes it all the more exciting! MUTE is a film that will last. It is unlike any other science fiction being made today.”
MUTE is due to begin production in March 2016 and as well as getting Paul Rudd and Alexander Skarsgard on board there are a couple of other reasons to get excited as MUTE will also see Duncan reunited with MOON star Sam Rockwell and MOON composer Clint Mansell returning to provide the soundtrack. As Duncan’s long-time producer partner Stuart Fenegan said “…can’t do sci-fi without Sam and Clint!”
MUTE is also being developed as a graphic novel with Dark Horse Comic featuring artwork by the incredible Glenn Fabry. (Scroll/swipe images to view a taster)
So for everyone that may have been wondering “Where are we now?” with regards Duncan’s film making, 2016 is looking like the year your desire to see new work from Mr Jones hooked up to the silver screen again could be the one for you.
Follow Duncan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ManMadeMoon
Follow Warcraft Movie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/warcraftmovie and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/WarcraftMovie
Take a virtual flight over the skies of Azeroth with Legendary VR: http://www.legendary.com/legendary-vr/
For all other news on what Duncan is up to follow ManMadeMovies on Twitter: https://twitter.com/manmademovies and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ManMadeMoviesFB
Finally, Collider have posted this handy guide: ‘Warcraft’: 35 Things to Know About Universal’s Massively Ambitious Epic Fantasy: http://smarturl.it/35WARCRAFTfacts
#WARCRAFTmovie #DuncanJones