Did you see that little snippet of WARCRAFT footage released today?
Well, you didn’t see it here, ‘cause we don’t fuck around with those “previews of previews” that have become common in the tentpole marketplace. But I ain’t gonna lie and say that what I saw in those few seconds didn’t get me a little confident in Jones ability to handle the scope and effects of a major studio film.
Now we know what his next will be: his long-in-development project called MUTE, which will star Alexander Skarsgard and Paul Rudd.
MUTE, which will be a big step down in terms of size and budget from WARCRAFT, takes place in Berlin of the near-future, where Skarsgard’s mute bartender is looking for his missing lady friend. He continually encounters two wacko surgeons from the States (incl. one played by Rudd), who serve as his only clues as to the location of his beloved.
Skarsgard (who I sometimes wished was mute in certain episodes of TRUE BLOOD) might be breaking out as a legit movie star after years of toiling in indies and TV. He’s got that TARZAN flick coming out next year, and even though the word on the street is that it’s sorta PAN-doomed, he’s obviously good enough in it to earn this leading man gig. This seems like the kind of dark, noir-y tale (with weird shades of early Lars Von Trier) that Jones was turning in before WARCRAFT, and I’m curious to see how he uses Rudd (whose wiseass shtick has finally started to become old hat).
I’m glad Jones isn’t attaching himself to WARCRAFT 2 or any of the other countless studio flicks on the docket. In this age where even certain critics are starting to prefer personality-free, producer driven product over auteur-driven cinema, a singular talent like Jones doesn’t need to waste all his time playing with other people’s toys. I’d rather he come up with some more mind-warping stuff for us to digest, and this seems like exactly that.
