Summary
Emma Stone’s remake of a 2003 award-winning Korean movie,Bugonia, sets a 2025 release date. Already an Academy Award-winning actress forLa La Land, Stone’s career has ascended to new heights through her multiple collaborations with director Yorgos Lanthimos, starting withThe Favourite, which earned her another Oscar nomination, andPoor Things, which wonStone her second Oscar. FollowingKinds of Kindness, Lanthimos and Stone are reuniting once again for an adaptation of the South Korean sci-fi comedy,Save the Green Planet!
Now, Lanthimos and Stone’s latest collaboration has received an official title, release date, and an additional cast member. According toDeadline,Lanthimos and Stone’s latest film, officially titledBugonia, will be released in theaters on August 15, 2025. It will also star Jesse Plemons, reuniting him with Stone and Lanthimos afterKinds of Kindness, for which he won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival.
What To Expect From Bugonia
Plot, Cast & More
Bugoniawill beLanthimos and Stone’s fifth collaborationfollowingThe Favourite, the short filmBleat,Poor Things, andKinds of Kindness. Each of these projects have been vastly different, either in terms of plot or period, with the last being a triptych fable, andBugoniashould continue this trend. As an adaptation ofSave the Green Planet!,the film follows two conspiracy-minded men who kidnap the powerful CEO of a major corporation, convinced that she is an alien intent on annihilating Earth.
Fresh off starring together inKinds of Kindness, Stone will likely play the powerful CEO, and Plemons one of the men who kidnap her. This leaves one of the two kidnappers uncast and, considering Lanthimos' tendencies, he could turn to one of his past collaborators. These options include Willem Dafoe, whostarred inPoor ThingsandKinds of Kindness, or Joe Alwyn, who was featured inThe FavouriteandKinds of Kindness. Lanthimos could also revert to collaborating with Colin Farrell, who starred inThe LobsterandThe Killing of a Sacred Deer.
Set for June 14, 2025,Bugoniais scheduled to release in theaters on the same day as the MCU’sBlademovie. However, that project has been in disarray with numerous directors and writers attached, so it’s unlikely it will be able to meet that release date. Lanthimos and Stone, on the other hand, have proven their ability to work fast (filmingKinds of Kindnessin just a few months) and produce stellar results (Kinds of Kindnessreviewshave been mostly positive).
Kinds of Kindnessalso opened to the highest theater average of 2024 so far with over $75,000. Before that,Poor Thingsearned over $117 million at the box office on a $35 million budget. Now, any time Lanthimos and Stone team up for an intriguing project, such asBugonia, it has the chance to be an event movie that could see serious awards season consideration.
Save the Green Planet
Cast
Save the Green Planet is a sci-fi comedy film by director Jang Joon-hwan and was released in 2004 in North America. Believing South Korea’s leadership consists of reptilian aliens that have begun a systematic conquest of Earth, Byeong-gu decides to capture them and wring the truth out of them - whether they’re genuinely extra-terrestrials or not.
