Surprise! Here’s the first trailer for Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Bugonia.” The film is set to hit theaters on October 24, before expanding nationwide on Halloween. The film is almost certainly heading for a Venice Film Festival premiere in early September.
This marks another collaboration between Lanthimos and Emma Stone, who stars in the film alongside Jesse Plemons. “Bugonia” will be their fourth consecutive feature, five if you include their 2022 NYFF short “Bleat.” The director has been on a prolific run, with “Poor Things” winning the Golden Lion, and “Kinds of Kindness” premiering at Cannes last year.
Adapted from the Korean cult classic “Save the Green Planet!,” “Bugonia” follows two conspiracy theorists who kidnap a powerful corporate CEO, convinced she’s an alien plotting Earth’s destruction. With the trailer now out, the tone seems to lean into Lanthimos’ signature brand of absurdism and off-kilter tension, one more reason this could be a major player in the fall festival and awards circuit.
To say that Lanthimos was inspired by the iconoclasm of Bunuel's work would be an understatement. You can see it all over his work. However, the moralist approach that Bunuel had in his pictures isn’t as present in Lanthimos' cinema. Instead, a Kubrickian detachment, a total dis-empathy towards character, is what the Greek auteur consistently aims for.
You can feel Kubrick and Buñuel in Lanthimos’ best work, particularly “Dogtooth,” and “The Favourite.” A key collaborator in shaping his visual identity has been cinematographer Robbie Ryan, who has now shot the Greek auteur’s last four films. Together, they've established a distinct visual language: wide-angle and fisheye lenses, slow roving camera moves, and a fluid, almost voyeuristic framing.