The film giving “Star Trek” a run for its money in the race for best sci-fi film of the year isn’t big-budget blockbuster “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” (shocker). Instead, it’s the made-on-the-cheap, moody “Moon.” The highly praised indie was the directorial debut of music-video-director Duncan Jones, and it made a major showing at the British Independent Film Awards this year. In September, we revealed the concept art for his sophomore effort, “Mute,” but Variety reports that Jones is now working on another sci-fi film “Source Code.”
Jake Gyllenhaal is in talks to star in the speculative thriller about a soldier who awakens to realize he is in a body not his own. But the multi-layered script from Ben Ripley (“Species III”) with some reworking from Billy Ray (“State of Play”) doesn’t stop there; the soldier is living in his own “Groundhog Day”-like hell. He is a train passenger who experiences a train bombing over and over again, with his only salvation found in solving the crime.
The science-fiction genre got an injection of substance and style with the release of “Moon,” and we’re excited to see what Jones can bring to a film with a larger budget. Gyllenhaal has been all over the map as far as career choices with two of his upcoming films — the Jim Sheridan-directed drama “Brothers” and video-game adaptation “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” — demonstrating his, umm, range. Hopefully, “Source Code” will lean more toward the former.
