Focus Features utilized a segment of their CinemaCon showcase to unveil an exclusive first glimpse into Yorgos Lanthimos' latest cinematic endeavor, Bugonia. Starring the Oscar-winning and frequent collaborator, Emma Stone, alongside Jesse Plemons—whom she previously shared the screen with in Lanthimos' Kinds of Kindness—the film boasts a script penned by Will Tracy. This thrilling tale follows two conspiracy-enthralled young men who undertake the daring act of abducting the influential CEO of a prominent corporation, convinced of her extraterrestrial origins and her mission to obliterate planet Earth. The cast is rounded out by notable actors Aidan Delbis, Stavros Halkias, and Alicia Silverstone.
In a teaser that was all too brief, the footage commenced with a picturesque garden scene, awash with vibrant flowers and busy bees flitting to and fro. A foreboding voiceover echoed, elucidating the "magnificent" process of pollination. "The workers gather pollen for the queen," it narrated. "A third of our food is pollinated in this manner, yet the bees are succumbing." The voiceover further intoned that as the workers abandon the queen, the colony gradually declines into obsolescence.
The scenes that rapidly flickered across the screen depicted Plemons' character as a blue-collar technician of sorts. Stone's character then emerged from a luxurious mansion, embodying the archetype of a high-ranking CEO. Subsequently, she was glimpsed being roughly tackled into a bush beside a window, presumably during the kidnapping. In captivity, her head was shaved, revealing a vulnerable and petrified Stone, her face pale with fear in a subsequent scene.
Inspired by the 2003 South Korean sci-fi comedy, Save the Green Planet, the English-language adaptation was conceived by Miky Lee's CJ ENM, alongside Midsommar director Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen from Square Peg. Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe are producing for Element Pictures, joined by Lanthimos, Aster, Knudsen, Stone, Lee, and Jerry Kyoungboum Ko for CJ ENM. Mark your calendars: Bugonia is set to storm theaters on November 7.
