At one time, Warner Bros. was planning to give director Bong Joon-ho’s sci-fi thriller Mickey 17 a theatrical release on March 29th, 2024 – but then they bounced the movie to January of 2025 and released Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire on March 29th instead. Why the delay? According to industry scooper Daniel Richtman, it’s rumored that Joon-ho and Warner Bros. are at odds over the director’s cut. Richtman wrote, “I hear Mickey 17 is delayed because Warner Bros. won’t let Bong Joon-ho release his director’s cut. They want to release a more ‘accessible’ version.”
This may not be surprising for CinemaCon attendees to hear. A trailer for Mickey 17 was shown at Cinema Con earlier this year (we have the report HERE) and some who saw the footage felt that the movie “could either be totally amazing or a complete disaster.”
This sci-fi thriller is the first film Bong has made since his 2019 film Parasite won Best Picture and he won the Best Director and Best Original Screenplay Academy Awards. It’s based on a novel by Edward Ashton that was called Mickey7, but they changed the number for the title of the adaptation.
Here’s a plot synopsis for Mickey 17: Whenever there’s a mission that’s too dangerous—even suicidal—the crew turns to Mickey. After one iteration dies, a new body is regenerated with most of his memories intact. After six deaths, Mickey7 understands the terms of his deal…and why it was the only colonial position unfilled when he took it.
The film stars Robert Pattinson, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, Naomi Ackie, and Mark Ruffalo.
The novel Mickey7 (which you can purchase at THIS LINK) has the following description: Dying isn’t any fun… but at least it’s a living. Mickey7 is an Expendable: a disposable employee on a human expedition sent to colonize the ice world Niflheim. Whenever there’s a mission that’s too dangerous―even suicidal―the crew turns to Mickey. After one iteration dies, a new body is regenerated with most of his memories intact. After six deaths, Mickey7 understands the terms of his deal… and why it was the only colonial position unfilled when he took it. On a fairly routine scouting mission, Mickey7 goes missing and is presumed dead. By the time he returns to the colony base, surprisingly helped back by native life, Mickey7’s fate has been sealed. There’s a new clone, Mickey8, reporting for Expendable duties. The idea of duplicate Expendables is universally loathed, and if caught, they will likely be thrown into the recycler for protein. Mickey7 must keep his double a secret from the rest of the colony. Meanwhile, life on Niflheim is getting worse. The atmosphere is unsuitable for humans, food is in short supply, and terraforming is going poorly. The native species are growing curious about their new neighbors, and that curiosity has Commander Marshall very afraid. Ultimately, the survival of both lifeforms will come down to Mickey7. That is, if he can just keep from dying for good.
Bong wrote, directed, and produced Mickey 17 for his production company Offscreen, along with Kate Street Picture Company’s Dooho Choi and Plan B’s Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, part of the latter’s overall deal with Warner Bros.
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