Yorgos Lanthimos Announces New Film ‘Bugonia’ Starring Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons

Director Shifts from Searchlight to Focus Features for Sci-Fi Thriller

A day after his latest film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, acclaimed director Yorgos Lanthimos has revealed his next project: *Bugonia*. The film will star Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons, who both lead his newest release, *Kinds of Kindness*.

Written by Will Tracy, *Bugonia* follows the story of two conspiracy-obsessed men who kidnap a powerful CEO, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying Earth.

Focus Features has secured the U.S. distribution rights for *Bugonia*, with Universal Pictures handling the international release. This marks a significant shift for Lanthimos, who has previously worked with Searchlight on several successful films, including the Oscar-winning *Poor Things* and *The Favourite*, as well as the upcoming *Kinds of Kindness*.

*Bugonia* is an English-language adaptation of the 2003 South Korean sci-fi comedy *Save the Green Planet*. The adaptation is being developed by Miky Lee’s CJ ENM in collaboration with Ari Aster, director of *Midsommar*, and Lars Knudsen at Square Peg.

Producing the film are Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe of Element Pictures, along with Lanthimos, Aster, Knudsen, Stone, Lee, and Jerry Kyoungboum Ko for CJ ENM.

Emma Stone, who has previously collaborated with Lanthimos on *The Favourite* and *Poor Things*, will once again join forces with the director in *Bugonia*. Both Stone and Jesse Plemons also star in *Kinds of Kindness*, which is set for release on June 26. The film, divided into three parts, has received praise for its innovative structure. The Hollywood Reporter’s Cannes review highlights Lanthimos’s reinvigorated approach, stating, “The tripartite structure allows Lanthimos to subvert societal and storytelling norms. Though it may initially seem less thematically cohesive, the film’s intricacies reveal themselves upon reflection, with interconnected threads emerging over time.”