Duncan Jones' Mute starring Alexander Skarsgård gets Netflix release datum 

 starring Alexander Skarsgård gets Netflix release date

It’s been a long, winding road for Duncan Jones, who’s been trying for years to make his sci-fi passion project,

director can take a victory lap because the film finally has an official release date on Netflix.

off the ground in a Twitter thread posted Friday, and it ended with the news that his project will debut on the streaming platform this Feb. 23.

Emmy-winner Alexander Skarsgård stars as Leo, a mute bartender who lost the ability to speak after a childhood accident. Set in Berlin in the year 2052,

follows his quest through the seedy underbelly of the neon-laced city to find his missing girlfriend, Naadirah (Seyneb Saleh).

) also feature as Leo’s only recurring clues: two American surgeons.

So here we are.@mute. Starring Alex Skarsgård, Justin Theroux & Paul Rudd.

— Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) January 19, 2018

“So some of you may be aware that I have previously called @Mute my

,” Jones wrote in the first of his tweets. “I did this, as much like [director] Terry Gillian’s fabled film of that name, it seemed everything was against

To really hammer home how long he’s been developing

, Jones then showed a draft of the script he wrote in 2003. “Back then, the film was a very different beast,” he wrote, adding how the setting was initially contemporary London.

“It was going to be my first film,” Jones continued. “I sent it to Sam Rockwell who loved it! …but he wanted to play Leo, the part that would later go to Alex Skarsgård. I wouldn’t budge but was so enamored with Sam, I decided to write something just for him. That was

ended up being Jones’ first feature film, released in 2009.

So some of you may be aware that I have previously called @Mute my “Don Quixote.” I did this, as much like Terry Gillian’s fabled film of that name, it seemed everything was against Mute ever being made. In fact, here’s an early draft… from 2003! pic.twitter.com/p4LhzmMXOi

Back then the film was a very different beast. It was set in London, contemporary and the cast would have been Cary Grant, Boris Karloff & Bela Lugosi. Ok. Maybe not that cast… pic.twitter.com/hJhb5ebTXC

It was going to be my first film. I sent it to Sam Rockwell who loved it!

…but he wanted to play Leo, the part that would later go to Alex Skarsgård. I wouldn’t budge but was so enamoured with Sam, I decided to write something just for him. That was Moon. pic.twitter.com/yVeDLyazA2

kept being pushed to the back burner” as he went on to direct

; his wife, Rodene Ronquillo, successfully battled cancer; his father, David Bowie, passed away; he welcomed his first baby to the world; and Marion Skene, Jones’ nanny as a child, died of brain cancer.

as a graphic novel with Glenn Fabry, but it “never fully came to fruition.”

“But one day…@netflix came to town!” he wrote. “Netflix, these crazy new kids on the block, had this totally crazy philosophy on filmmaking straight out of the ’70s. Don’t make 4 quad ‘please everyone’ homogenous blobs! Make films [filmmakers] are passionate about & let the audience find them!”

Years past, Mute kept being pushed to the back burner. Life filled up with Source Code, my amazing wife’s successful battle with cancer, Warcraft, dad’s cancer, baby, the wonderful woman who raised me, Marion’s sad loss to brain cancer. We’d do a graphic novel with @FabryGlenn pic.twitter.com/jCSqoq8uXx

But sadly that book never fully came to fruition.

Netflix, these crazy new kids on the block, had this totally crazy philosophy on film making straight out of the 70s. Don’t make 4 quad “please everyone” homogenous blobs! Make films fimmakers are passionate about & let the audience find them! pic.twitter.com/xtiU3P2C4H

So, yes, it’s been a very long road indeed.