Script review site ScriptShadow compared two versions of Mute, which Jones wrote with Mike Johnson. The first script, written in 2006, is actually set in modern day Berlin. It's only in the more recent version, set in 2046, that we get the futuristic film noir. But ScriptShadow reviewer Carson Reeves says the differences in the two versions are likely aesthetic, as the overall story remains largely the same despite the futuristic setting. Spoilers below.

We've known for some time that Mute focuses on a bartender who has lost the ability to speak and gets caught up in the Berlin underworld when his female partner goes missing. The entire script is available here, but Mute tells two parallel stories. One is about Leo, the titular mute, who falls for his fellow waiter, an Afghan woman named Naadirah. One day, Leo is unable to find Naadirah, and tears through Berlin's gangsters to find her, though he eventually learns that she is harboring a shocking secret. The other story focuses on Cactus Bill, an American stuck in Berlin who is waiting on fake passports for his wife and daughter so he can get out of dodge. Reeves notes that while Leo's story is all action, no talk (at least not from Leo), the Cactus Bill scenes are extremely verbose; Cactus Bill does little more than talk and wait around for passports.

At the moment, Mute is on hold while Jones takes on Source Code. But Reeves believes that, even with a few bumps in the script, Mute will at least look incredible, if it ever gets made.

[ScriptShadow]

He believes that if there weren't difficulties getting it made, then he must have got something wrong.

''Every problem,'' he points out like a scientist happily positing a theorem, ''is proof that we're planning a movie very different from the norm.''

[The Age]

Mute center around the disappearance of a young woman, and her partner, a mute bartender, who must face Berlin's gangsters to find out what happened to her. We spoke to Jones earlier this summer about the setting for Mute and why he's had Bladerunner in mind when constructing his future Berlin:

The only reason that I mention Blade Runner is because there's something about that particular film, where they really created a believable and realistic living breathing futuristic world. For all of the other films that have tried to do that I don't think anything has come as close the way Blade Runner has to creating something believable. Something that feels real and organic. It's like going to a real city and shooting a film there. You just get a sense that this place exists. [In] most of the science fiction films, it always feels a bit fake and a bit flat, but Blade Runner really didn't. That's the aspect of Blade Runner I'm hoping to capture. If and when I get the chance to do my film that I'm making.

According to the Liberty Films site, Jones plans to start shooting Mute in Berlin early next year.

[Liberty Films via /Film]

Rumors have been circulating that Duncan Jones' next picture would be the underwater adventure film Escape From the Deep. But fret not scifi fans, his next picture will actually be Mute, the mysterious picture about a future world that Jones has compared to Blade Runner's noir Los Angeles.

According to ScreenDaily, Jones will team up with Moon producer Stuart Fenegan, who revealed some of the plot. Apparently, it's about

a woman whose disappearance causes a mystery for her partner, a mute bartender. When she disappears, he has to go up against the city's gangsters.

The director will be getting $25 million in for his futuristic gangster film. Which makes us all froth at the mouth a little with the idea of giving Jones actual money to bring his beautiful scenes to life (Moon's landscapes, use of light, and sets were jaw-dropping, drool-inducing beautiful). That's almost five times his previous indie budget.

Jones describes Mute as more of an ensemble piece, but revealed more details to us when we pushed him a bit on the movie's big bad villains. The project is set to start filming by the end of this year.

Upon mentioning that original director Ridley Scott had screened Duncan's current flick staring Sam Rockwell and "seemed to like it as well." We asked more about Duncan's next rumored film that was said to be inspired by Ridley Scott's Blade Runner.

Speaking of Ridley Scott, you mentioned earlier a desire to make a Blade Runner-esque sequel set in a futuristic Berlin. Can you tell us more about that?

I still want to do that film, and I'm still hoping to do it, and have it be the next film I do. It's not Blade Runner 2. I have no claim on that at all. The only reason that I mention Blade Runner is because there's something about that particular film, where they really created a believable and realistic living breathing futuristic world. For all of the other films that have tried to do that I don't think anything has come as close the way Blade Runner has to creating something believable. Something that feels real and organic. It's like going to a real city and shooting a film there. You just get a sense that this place exists. [In] most of the science fiction films, it always feels a bit fake and a bit flat, but Blade Runner really didn't. That's the aspect of Blade Runner I'm hoping to capture. If and when I get the chance to do my film that I'm making.

Now is the script done for this film?

Yes it's been done for awhile. I actually wrote it before I did Moon. The script has started to go out to actors. So if I can get a cast, and if Moon goes well and people have the faith to invest in me to another film then that's the film I'm very much hoping I'll do next.

Since characters are very important to you, what type of characters and actors are you looking for, for this film?

I think it's really just a matter of coming up with believable humans, you know rounded people. People you actually believe exist. One of the great things about Mute, which is the title for this next film... First of all, there's more than one person [as in Moon], but also there's a couple of villains in there which I'm really excited about. They're so different than anything you've seen. I hope I get the chance to make the film because they're going to be very unique, you're not going to have seen anyone like these two guys before.

What are we dealing with here with these villains: Machines? Aliens? Mutants?

No not at all. No aliens, nothing like that. It's a very human story, it's about normal, normal people having to live in this future city. Science fiction is more of a backdrop, in some ways, than you might expect. But I like that, because ... if you allow [science fiction] to be in the backdrop and not be what it's all about, then the humanity is what you're really concentrating on and looking at. You see why people are the way they are , and how they've maintained their humanity in these science-fiction settings. Or the opposite, why their humanity starts to be eroded. When they started to lose their humanity because of the world that they live in, and that's what this film is going to be about.

Did you spend a lot of time world-building for this future vision?

Yes, I think so. Again, trying to learn from films that I love, like Blade Runner, there are certain things that they did, and certain things that I wanted to do, that they didn't do, where you really create a living breathing environment. Just giving some ideas of where culture might go. Giving you ideas about kinds of restaurants or things you might see in the future that don't exist yet. I had a lot of ideas on that front that I wanted to incorporate into this world.

Can you share any little world bit with us, anything unique from your future?

Nope. [Laughs] You'll have to wait and see!

We're very happy the Mute script is going out to actors. If it's as grounded in clever writing and character-building as Jones' Moon, then I'm even more excited for this very hush-hush film. Until then go check out Moon on June 12th.