The greatest shaved female heads in cinema history are undoubtedly Renée Falconetti in “La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc” and Sigourney Weaver in “Alien 3.” Between those two poles of follicle-free cinema lie a universe of filmmaking — and a new entry is about to enter its ranks: Yorgos Lanthimos‘s “Bugonia,” which just released its official trailer timed to its Venice debut (it had already shown footage at CinemaCon).
“Bugonia” stars the director’s now-repeat collaborator Emma Stone as a corporate CEO living the life: power suits, indoor pools, Time and Forbes covers. The only annoyance in her life is making sure she nails the bit of corporate jargon she’s supposed to make sound natural in a video shoot. Then she’s kidnapped, her head shaved by her abductors, and she’s told her hair “has been destroyed” to prevent her from using it to contact her mothership.
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Ah.
Jesse Plemons plays the abductor, a conspiracy theorist who fashions himself as the leader of the human resistance against what he believes is an alien takeover of Earth… and he thinks Stone’s CEO is an alien. So we’re guessing on the “shaved head cinema” spectrum, this will veer closer to “Alien 3.”
“Bugonia” is a Venice premiere and is Stone’s fourth teaming with Lanthimos after “The Favourite,” “Poor Things,” and “Kinds of Kindness.” It’s written by “The Menu” co-scribe Will Tracy, who also wrote for “Succession,” so expect some pointed satire indeed. And, it’s a remake of the 2003 South Korean movie “Save the Green Planet!”
Producer Jerry Ko said last year, “We started out with the belief that the film’s concept was ahead of its time and that [maybe we] could make an indie movie, but as we traveled around Hollywood, we realized that there were many hidden fans of the original film,” said Ko. “I happened to be in L.A. and saw Ari Aster moderating a screening of ‘Save the Green Planet!’ at a theater, so I reached out to him and asked him to be a part of the production. So he came on board as a producer. Then Will Tracy, a screenwriter of ‘Succession,’ came on board and wrote the story. The buzz started to build from then on.”
Focus Features will release “Bugonia” in select theaters on Friday, October 24 and expand wide on Friday, October 31. Watch the trailer for “Bugonia” below.
