Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone‘s latest collaboration “Bugonia” will be buzzing into theaters in 2025.
After Stone won her second Academy Award for Lanthimos’ roles, the actress/producer reunites with the auteur once again for the upcoming remake of sci-fi South-Korean comedy “Save the Green Planet!” The project was announced in February 2024.
The logline reads: “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.”
Six-time Oscar-nominated director Lanthimos recently collaborated with Stone and fellow “Bugonia” star Jesse Plemons on “Kinds of Kindness,” which debuted at Cannes 2024.
“Bugonia” is written by Will Tracy; Stone produces through her Fruit Tree banner. Lanthimos, Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen (Square Peg), Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe (Element Pictures), and Miky Lee and Jerry Ko (CJ ENM) also produce.
“Bugonia” will be released November 7, 2025, just in time for awards season. The positioning for the theatrical release could mean a fall festival play, with Cannes, Venice, or NYFF likely world premiere destinations.
Focus will release “Bugonia” in the U.S. with Universal Pictures distributing internationally (excluding Korea). CJ ENM will distribute in Korea.
“Save the Green Planet!” (2005) was written and directed by Jang Joon-Hwan and produced by Sidus. This English-language version was developed by CJ ENM with Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen at Square Peg. The production has been financed by Fremantle and CJ ENM.
Longtime Lanthimos collaborator Stone recently told GQ that the director enjoys interrogating the human need for power structures in his onscreen storytelling.
“I think the elements of control are in every thing he’s ever done,” Stone said. “That’s I think an obsession of his and something very interesting to him — human nature and the kinds of agreements we make about socialization and what we’re supposed to be. Who’s in charge? Do we want to be in charge of ourselves or do we want someone else to be? What does it mean to be loved? These are all these abstract, strange, surrealistic depictions, these things that are very human and affect us all.”
As for the back-to-back productions of “Poor Things,” “Kinds of Kindness,” and now, “Bugonia,” Lanthimos told IndieWire that it’s all about what project comes to him.
“There’s not a very structured plan of what it is I want to do and what it is I want to do next,” Lanthimos said. “It’s all these things that interest me, and whatever script I feel is ready to go, you just go and do it.”
