With Source Code premiering tomorrow at SXSW and getting a theatrical release on April 1st, Duncan Jones is getting ready to move onto his third feature. We’ve already reported that it won’t be his passion project, Mute, but we will be seeing that story soon, just not necessarily in the medium we would expect.

For those who don’t know or remember: Mute is the movie he planned to make after Moon, and it follows a mute bartender in a futuristic Berlin, who’s looking for his girlfriend that was kidnapped by gangsters. Heavily inspired by both the world and atmosphere of Blade Runner (see this concept art), the film would even feature a cameo from Sam Rockwell‘s character in Moon. Unfortunately, funding became a problem, and Jones‘ attempts to get it off the ground have failed so far.

Talking to GordonandtheWhale, the filmmaker said that the film’s story will be told in graphic novel form first, in preparation for the eventual movie. His quote can be read below:

“…I’ve been talking to my producer today and we have decided that we’re going to release MUTE as a graphic novel. Because we’ve had so many problems trying to get this film made, you know? The people who are involved with financing films have just been…shy…shy of making the script. So what we decided to do is we’re going to make a graphic novel of it, prove it…prove it to an audience that this works and maybe in the future get the chance to come back and make it.”

He also said that his next movie, the details of which are still being kept quiet, will have a Blade Runner tinge to it, which we reported on back in January. Additionally, no publisher has yet been chosen, but if Source Code does well with critics and at the box office, I’d expect that it would get a big boost in attention from various companies.

After Darren Aronofsky turned his then-stalled The Fountain into a graphic novel and said he’ll give his long-gestating Noah the same treatment – the latter likely in preparation for an eventual film version – it seems kind of logical that Jones would do the same. And I’m really sort of elated by this news; while I want to see the actual film more, this should ensure that we get the story one way or another, and it being a comic first has a few benefits. For one, we could get some material that might be cut from a feature film if a studio considers it too odd or edgy, meaning we’re guaranteed to get his full vision. Plus, if you take a look at the concept art linked above, you can tell right off the bat that it’ll at the very least look damn cool; the idea of getting an entire book of art like that alone gets me excited. I wish him nothing but the best of luck, and I can’t wait to pick the graphic novel up when it’s released.

What do you think of Jones turning Mute into a graphic novel? Is this a good approach to take for a movie that’s having trouble getting made?