Expect more Yorgos Lanthimos strangeness in Bugonia: a tale of conspiracy and kidnapping. Here’s the first trailer:
Following The Favourite and Poor Things, director Yorgos Lanthimos and star Emma Stone’s creative partnership continues in their latest film, Bugonia. Also re-joining the fray will be Jesse Plemons who also starred in Lanthimos’ last film, the often dark and often brilliant Kinds Of Kindness.
Here’s what we know about Bugonia so far: it’s based on the 2003 Korean sci-fi comedy, Save The Green Planet, directed by Jang Joon-hwan, and also features appearances from Alicia Silverstone and comedian Stavros Halkias.
The script is by Will Tracy, writer of 2022’s excellent satire, The Menu. The story follows ‘two conspiracy-obsessed men who kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth.’
Lanthimos has left Searchlight Pictures for this project, the studio that has backed lots of his films including Oscar winners, Poor Things, The Favourite and Kinds Of Kindness. Instead, Focus Features backed Bugonia, which apparently shot in both New York and the UK.
Read more: Poor Things review | Emma Stone has never been better than in this twisted fairy tale
Our quick look at the trailer didn’t seem to reveal anything UK-based but you never know, given that Greece’s Acropolis is said to feature somewhere in the proceedings.
Bugonia releases in the UK on the 31st October, which means our Halloween plans for this year are already sorted, with the film likely offering up some fun counter-programming to The Black Phone 2, The Conjuring: Last Rites and whatever other horror films are due to be served up this spooky season.
Still, this is a Yorgos Lanthimos film and as such, could well descend into horror itself. All will be revealed later this year.
