Variety is reporting that Bong Joon-ho’s “Mickey 17” will premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in late February. This is a major coup for the Berlinale’s new artistic director Tricia Tuttle, succeeding Carlo Chatrian. Tuttle previously led the BFI London Film Festival.
‘Mickey’ was recently moved by Warner Bros to a March 7, 2025 theatrical launch. That’s the fourth date change ‘Mickey’ has had. It was originally supposed to come out on January 31, 2025, and then got switched to April 18. At the very beginning, Warners had positioned it for March 29, 2024.
Based on Edward Ashton‘s 2022 novel (“Mickey7”) Robert Pattinson stars in the film as “expendable” employee Mickey Barnes, who’s sent on dangerous missions. When Mickey dies, an exact replica takes his place and retains most of his memories, which leads him down a dark and dangerous path.
“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 cast for it, including Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette and Mark Ruffalo.
I’ll have a spitball of the the 75th Berlinale up sometime this weekend. On-paper, it’s looking like a strong lineup of films will be showing up this year. The only other title that’s been announced so far has been the opening night film, Tom Tykwer’s “The Light.”
The Berlin Film Festival is set to take place February 13-23, 2025.
Mukdeeprom is well known on the arthouse circuit for his work with Apichatpong Weerasethakul (“Memoria”), and he also shot three Guadagnino movies.