Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinds of Kindness” is currently in select theaters, with a wider rollout later this week, and Focus Features just announced the release date for his next movie, “Bugonia.” Focus will release the movie, a remake of South Korean sci-fi comedy “Save the Green Planet!,” in November 2025.
This new film, like “Kinds of Kindness,” stars Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons.
Universal Pictures will handle international distribution (besides Korea, where CJ ENM will distribute).
“Bugonia” was written by Will Tracy, a “Succession” alum who also wrote Mark Mylod’s “The Menu.” The official logline notes that the movie is about “two conspiracy-obsessed young men [kidnapping] the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth.”
This version of “Save the Green Planet!,” originally written and directed by Jang Joon-hwan and produced by Sidus, was developed by CJ ENM with Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen at Square Peg. The production has been financed by Fremantle and CJ ENM.
Producers on “Bugonia” are Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe (for Element Pictures); Lanthimos; Aster and Knudsen (for Square Peg); Stone (for Fruit Tree); and Miky Lee and Jerry Ko (for CJ ENM).
Lanthimos’ movie before “Kinds of Kindness,” “Poor Things,” won four Academy Awards (including Best Actress for Stone). It made $117 million on a budget of $35 million and with a bizarre premise involving a Frankenstein-like doctor and his mad experiments leading to Stone’s Bella Baxter, a grown woman with the mind of a child. “Kinds of Kindness” is a bonkers triptych, with each section featuring the same performers (led by Stone and Plemons). “Bugonia’s” fall release puts it firmly in the awards corridor for 2025.
“Bugonia” hits theaters on Nov. 7, 2025.
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