Director Yorgos Lanthimos is reteaming with his The Favourite, Poor Things, and Kinds of Kindness star Emma Stone for Bugonia, a remake of the South Korean film Save the Green Planet – and today, Focus Features has announced that they will be giving Bugonia a wide theatrical release on November 7th, 2025!
Described as an eccentric black comedy, the original Save the Green Planet followed a disillusioned young man who captures and tortures a businessman whom he believes to be part of an alien invasion. A battle of wits ensues between the captor, his devoted girlfriend, the businessman and a private detective.
Here’s a longer synopsis: Joon-hwan Jang imagines the fate of the human race hinging on Byun-gu, a bitter, paranoid and eccentric beekeeper who, with the help of his tightrope walker girlfriend, Sooni, kidnaps a powerful and successful businessman, Man-sik. Byun-gu believes that Man-sik is an alien from the planet Andromeda, one of many hiding among us and plotting to destroy the Earth in a few days. Amphetamine-popping Byun-gu sees himself as the planet’s last hope, and sets about torturing Man-sik with relish, trying to convince him to contact the “Royal Prince” and call off Armageddon. A battle of wits and wills ensues, with Man-sik trying to convince his captors that he’s human and attempting to escape. Man-sik recognizes Byun-gu as a disgruntled former employee whose comatose mother suffers from a mysterious illness. It begins to seem that Byun-gu’s true motivation may be personal, but he’s still ruthlessly determined to get Man-sik to confess and cooperate, even if he has to risk killing him. Meanwhile, a dishevelled detective, Chu, and his young acolyte, Inspector Kim, discover that the person who kidnapped Man-sik may have struck several times before, always with deadly results.
The original film was directed by Joon-hwan Jang, and when the remake was first announced four years ago, it was said that Jang would be at the helm of the new take on the concept as well. But he ended up passing the helm over to Lanthimos. The Bugonia screenplay was written by Will Tracy, a writer on HBO’s Succession and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver who also co-wrote the genre film The Menu. His version of Save the Green Planet has the following synopsis: 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.
Emma Stone is joined in the cast by Jesse Plemons, who was also in Kinds of Kindness.
Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe are producing Bugonia for Element Pictures, alongside Miky Lee and Jerry Ko for CJ ENM, Stone for Fruit Tree, Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen for Square Peg, and Lanthimos.
Are you a fan of Save the Green Planet, and are you looking forward to seeing Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia when its 2025 release date comes around? Let us know by leaving a comment below.