“Bugonia,” the latest collaboration between director Yorgos Lanthimos and star Emma Stone, will premiere ahead of schedule.
The film will open in select theaters on Oct. 24 before expanding nationwide on Oct. 31. That’s slightly earlier than the original release date of Nov. 7. Focus Features is rolling out “Bugonia” in the U.S. and Canada while Universal Pictures, the specialty studio’s parent company, will handle international distribution.
“Bugonia,” a remake of the South Korean sci-fi comedy “Save the Green Planet,” revolves around two conspiracy-obsessed friends who kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major corporation because they are convinced she’s an alien intent on destroying Earth. Jesse Plemons, who worked with Stone and Lanthimos on “Kinds of Kindness,” also leads the cast alongside Aidan Delbis, Stavros Halkias and Alicia Silverstone.
Lanthimos is directing from a script by Will Tracy, whose credits include “The Menu” and “Succession.” Stone and Lanthimos were producers — via their respective companies Fruit Tree and Pith — in their latest team-up following “Poor Things,” “The Favourite” and “Kinds of Kindness.” Producers also include Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe of Element Pictures, Ari Aster and Lars Knusden of Square Peg, and Miky Lee and Jerry Kyoungboum Ko of CJ ENM.
Focus Features won a bidding war for “Bugonia,” a departure for Lanthimos after Searchlight distributed his prior three films, 2018’s “The Favourite,” 2023’s “Poor Things” and 2024’s “Kinds of Kindness.” A24 distribution the two prior to that, 2015’s “The Lobster” and 2017’s “The Killing of a Sacred Deer.”
The studio’s upcoming slate includes Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet,” led by Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley; Wes Anderson’s “The Phoenician Scheme”; Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson-led musical drama “Song Sung Blue”; Ronan Day-Lewis’ feature debut “Anemone,” starring his father, Daniel Day-Lewis; and Ethan Coen’s “Honey Don’t!” with Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza and Chris Evans.
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