Earlier this year, Bong Joon-ho’s upcoming sci-fi film, “Mickey 17,” was delayed to a dubious January 2025 release date. It was originally Bong’s wishes to premiere this one at Cannes, but Warner Bros decided to schedule it into the dumping grounds of January. What gives?
The film started production in the summer of 2022. There hasn’t been much promotional material for it either, save for a measly teaser, and the above image. At least, based on what I’m hearing, we’ll finally be getting a trailer this week.
A recent report from Variety claimed Warners was not “pumped” about the film’s prospects, at least when compared to the rest of their 2024/2025 slate. When contacted for comment, a Warner rep insisted: “There is, of course, enthusiasm for it.”
“Mickey 17” cost $150M to produce. The test screening reactions for this one have been all over the place. Yet, this is Bong’s first film since his 2019 Palme d’Or & Oscar winning “Parasite,” and he’s assembled a great castfor it, including Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette and Mark Ruffalo.
The film, an adaptation of Edward Ashton’s recently published novel, centers on an “expendable” (Pattinson), who is a disposable employee on a human expedition sent to colonize an ice world. After one iteration dies, a new body is regenerated with most of his memories intact.
The trailer was shown at CinemaCon in April. One particular detail that had people talking was Pattinson’s voice, which was said to play like “Joe Pesci as Tweety Bird.” A person who saw the film told me that “Pattinson has an insane nasally, lisp-y voice that is really jarring at first.”
Bong is the filmmaker behind critically-acclaimed films such as “Parasite,”“Snowpiercer,” “Mother” “The Host” and “Memories of Murder.”
Edward Berger seems to have settled on what comes next. His Lance Armstrong biopic, starring Austin Butler, is now holding casting calls, with production eyed for January.