LOS ANGELES:

Justin Theroux has joined Paul Rudd and Alexander Skarsgard in science-fiction thriller “Mute,” with Duncan Jones directing.

Skarsgard is portraying a mute bartender in Berlin, 40 years in the future in what has become a roiling city of immigrants, where East crashes against West. His character will be looking for a woman who has disappeared — and when his search takes him deep into the city’s underbelly, an odd pair of American surgeons seem to be the only recurring clue.

“Mute” is based on a script by Jones and Mike Johnson and will be produced by Stuart Fenegan under Jones and Fenegan’s Liberty Films banner. Netflix announced in September that it would handle distribution.

Rudd and Skarsgard came on to the project late last year. Jones, who has been developing “Mute” for a dozen years, also directed “Moon,” “Warcraft” and “Source Code.”