One simply does not expect normalcy from a Yorgos Lanthimos film. The director of Dogtooth, The Favourite, and Poor Things has a new movie coming later this year: Bugonia, his remake of the Korean film Save the Green Planet. And the first teaser is as unnerving and off-kilter as any Lanthimos fan might expect. Maybe even more so.
The synopsis for this one says only, “Two conspiracy obsessed young men kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth.” The film stars frequent Lanthimos collaborator Emma Stone; Jesse Plemons (who was in the director’s Kinds of Kindness alongside Stone); Aidan Delbis (whose only other film is something called My Movie Starring Paul Dano); Stavros Halkias (Netflix’s Tires); and Alicia Silverstone (who needs no introduction).
The tonal shift halfway through this teaser—from Plemons’ very serious dialogue about bees to Green Day’s “Basket Case”—is fantastic; one certainly hopes the whole film revels in this kind of see-saw of tones.
The remake script is by Will Tracy, who wrote The Menu and also several episodes of Succession. (Save the Green Planet was written and directed by Jang Joon-hwan.)
Lanthimos made a small splash in the US with his 2010 film Dogtooth, but garnered a lot more attention once he started making films in English (Dogtooth is in his native Greek), beginning with 2016’s The Lobster. The Favourite, released in 2018, was nominated for nine Oscars, and Olivia Colman won for Best Actress.
Bugonia comes to select theaters on October 24th, and opens wide on October 31st.
