With his latest film, Kinds Of Kindness, only hitting the Croisette at the Cannes Film Festival a few short days ago, Yorgos Lanthimos could’ve been forgiven for taking a breather to soak up some rays on the French Riviera — but that’s just not the Poor Things filmmaker’s style. As reported by THR, Lanthimos’ next project, sci-fi comedy Bugonia, has been snapped up by Focus Features and Universal. And what’s more, his Kinds Of Kindness leads Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons are set to star.
As we shared back in February, Lanthimos’ next film will be an English-language remake of Joon-Hwan Jang’s 2003 South Korean sci-fi comedy Save The Green Planet. The original movie’s barmy plot follows a conspiracy-obsessed man who becomes convinced that a number of his homeland’s top brass are secretly reptilian alien invaders bent on Earth’s destruction, going so far as to abduct several of them in an effort to extract their nefarious plans. As you do. Lanthimos’ version, penned by The Menu scribe Will Tracy, looks set to follow the same basic arc, only this time with two conspiracist kidnappers converging upon a single, female high-powered CEO. Whilst the Plemons and Stone of it all is yet to be confirmed, it wouldn’t be a huge reach to suspect Plemons may be getting his conspiracist on, with Lanthimos’ muse apparent Stone expanding her repertoire to play the potentially extraterrestrial CEO of the piece.
Commenting on Focus Features’ upcoming collaboration with the Greek auteur, company Chairman Peter Kujawski said: “Yorgos Lanthimos is a cinematic visionary with a unique style. We are excited to partner with him, Emma, and the teams at Element, Square Peg, and CJ ENM to bring this darkly funny story to life.”
We don’t know just yet when Bugonia will hit our screens, but Collider confirmed that cameras are set to start rolling on the latest Lanthimos joint this July. Plenty of time for us to dust off our finest tinfoil hats.