Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone are collaborating again, this time on Bugonia, an eerie, dark-comedy remake of the 2003 South Korean sci-fi film Save the Green Planet!, written and directed by Jang Joon-Hwan.
The film’s synopsis from Will Tracy’s screenplay is as follows: “Two conspiracy obsessed young men (Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis) kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company (Emma Stone), convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth.”
In addition to Stone, Plemons and Delbis, Stavros Halkias and Alicia Silverstone round out the cast.
The trailer is equal parts unsettling, outlandish and zany. Although its veneer is sheer absurdity, the film’s essence seems to be a dark commentary on economic disparity. While it’s unclear is Stone’s character is actually an alien, she appears like an unbothered Queen Bee, unfazed by the struggling working class.
The English-language version of the Korean film was developed by Miky Lee’s CJ ENM with Eddington writer-director Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen at Square Peg. Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe are producing for Element Pictures along with Lanthimos, Aster, Knudsen, Stone and Lee and Jerry Kyoungboum Ko for CJ ENM.
Stone has worked with Lanthimos on The Favourite, Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness, which also starred Plemons.
Universal Pictures will release Bugonia internationally, excluding Korea, where CJ ENM will handle the local release.
Focus Features will release Bugonia in select theaters in the U.S. on Oct. 24, followed by a wide expansion on Oct. 31.
