The dream team pairing of Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos continues. The director of The Favourite, Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness has returned with Bugonia, which will hit theaters a little earlier than expected, as Focus Features has announced a new release date for the film. The movie, which was previously slated for a November 7th release, will now premiere for a special limited engagement on October 24th before opening wide on October 31st. Focus Features has now released the trailer.
Bugonia stars Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, Stavros Halkias, and Alicia Silverstone. Lanthimos directed the film from a screenplay by Will Tracy. It follows two conspiracy-obsessed young men who kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced she is an alien intent on destroying Planet Earth. The film is produced by Element Pictures’ Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe; Yorgos Lanthimos via Pith; Emma Stone via Fruit Tree; Square Peg’s Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen; and CJ ENM’s Miky Lee and Jerry Kyoungboum Ko.
The trailer features Jesse Plemons as a beekeeper who is so obsessed with saving the environment that he kidnaps a rich CEO, played by Emma Stone. He’s convinced that the executive is an alien intent on destroying Earth. “It all starts with something magnificent: a flower and a honey bee,” Plemons’ character narrates. “The workers gather pollen for the queen. But the bees are dying. But that’s the way they planned it — to make us the same as the bees.” Then, the trailer shows Plemons as he and an associate attempt to kidnap Stone set to Green Day blasting in the background.
The original film, Save the Green Planet, was directed by Joon-hwan Jang, and when the remake was first announced over four years ago, it was said that Jang would be at the helm of the new take on the concept as well. But he ended up passing the helm over to Lanthimos. The Bugonia screenplay was written by Will Tracy, a writer on HBO’s Succession and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver who also co-wrote the genre film The Menu.
What did you think of the trailer? Are you excited for this new collaboration?
