Now, the director has a new movie in the works based on a cult comic series.The first looks make it seem like another ambitious project, but can he win over audiences and critics, or will this continue his unfortunate losing streak?
Duncan Jones Made A Name For Himself WithMoonAndSource Code
Two Of The Best Sci-Fi Films Of The New Millennium
Duncan Jones hit the ground running with 2009’sMoon.Filmed on a $5 million budget from a script he co-wrote with Nathan Parker, Jonescreated a mini-masterpiecewith beloved character actor Sam Rockwell in the starring role.Moontells the story of a man struggling with a mental crisis after spending three years alone mining on the far side of the moon.Beloved both by critics and the scientific community at large,Moonmay not have become a major box office smash, but it earned numerous awards upon release and set Jones up as a director to watch.Jones’s next film would solidify that reality.
IfMoonwas the opening salvo,Source Codeproved that Jones haswhat it takes to helm a thoughtful sci-fi thrill ridewith a sizable budget.Source Codestars Jake Gyllenhaal as an Army officer who is forced to relive the last eight minutes of another man’s life via a simulated recreation of a terrorist attack on a train over and over until he figures out who is responsible for the disaster.The twists and turns ofSource CoderivalMoonand demonstrated again that Jones has the right stuff to succeed in Hollywood.LikeMoonbefore it,Source Codewas a critical darling and earned more than $147 million against a $32 million budget. Its success let Jones to the biggest film of his career, and that’s where things went off the rails.
WarcraftAndMuteRuined Duncan Jones’s Reputation Seemingly Overnight
It Almost Seems A Bit Unfair, Really
Look, there wasalmost no way aWarcraftmovie was going to work.Adapting video games into a movie isn’t the easiest thing in the world, and the fandom surrounding theWarcraftfranchise and its lore meant pleasing the diehard fans was, essentially, an insurmountable task.The fact that it took Blizzard ten years from announcing aWarcraftfilm to getting it into theaters in 2016 is a testament to how difficult bringing the project from game to big screen really was. Jones’s wife was diagnosed with breast cancer just after he joined the project, and his father, the great David Bowie, died from cancer while Jones was still working on the film. Just take all of this into account when you learn thatWarcraftwas a critical disaster that ended up losing money at the box office despite bringing in nearly $440 million.
2018’sMuteis another story, however. This Netflix noir film is technically a follow-up toMoon,and it wasabsolutely eviscerated by critics upon release.IfWarcraftwas a film muddled by too many cooks in the kitchen, Jones has no one to blame but himself forMute’s quality.It is a much smaller film that he directed from a screenplay he co-wrote based on a story concept he came up with. He got stars like Alexander Skarsgård and Paul Rudd to star in it and even got Sam Rockwell to reprise his role fromMoon.Unfortunately,Muteis a mess that isn’t fun to watch despite its incredible visual style.
Rogue TrooperCould Be The Return Of Duncan Jones As A Sci-Fi Force To Be Reckoned With
Hey, We Can Dream, Right?
Duncan Jones has been working on an adaptation of the2000 ADcomic book stripRogue Troopersince 2018, and it’s looking like the project is finally coming to fruition. Co-created by Dave Gibbons ofWatchmenfame,Rogue Troopertells the ongoing story of a genetically engineered supersoldier named Rogue who runs around “Nu-Earth” with a gun, backpack, and helmet that have all had the personalities of his deceased squadmates uploaded into them. Yeah, it’s pretty nuts, and it sounds like it’ll be a great time at the movies.
But as nuts as the story itself is, the decision to animate the film usingEpic Games’s Unreal Engine 5is an even wilder one.Initially released in 2022, Unreal Engine 5 released the 5.6 update earlier this month and is undoubtedly one of the most powerful video game engines on the planet. Whether that translates to a feature film successfully is yet to be seen, butJones is clearly going for a purposefully weird look withRogue Trooper.
Here’s to hopingDuncan Jonesgets his groove back withRogue Trooper, because it’s hard for a filmmaker to get out of director jail if they helm three mediocre-to-bad movies in a row.
