Amid all the premieres and screenings at the Cannes Film Festival, there is also plenty of business going on as studios wheel and deal for film rights while in attendance. In that regard, one of the biggest winners from the 2024 Cannes Film Festival may be Focus Features as it landed the rights for the next film from Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos.
Focus Features announced on Saturday it had landed the worldwide distribution rights for Bugonia, which will be the fourth film from the duo of director Yorgos Lanthimos and actress Emma Stone. Lanthimos and Stone were already on hand at Cannes to screen their upcoming anthology film Kinds of Kindness, where it was one of 22 films competing for the Palme d'Or according to Deadline.
Jesse Plemons is confirmed to be starring in the film, as well, in what will be his second outing with Lanthimos after Kinds of Kindness.
Bugonia is described as a remake of the 2003 South Korean sci-fi comedy Save the Green Planet!, which was well-received at release and became a cult classic internationally. The remake will follow “two conspiracy-obsessed young men” who kidnap a powerful CEO on the belief she is actually an alien plotting to destroy Earth, and the two young men are the only ones who can stop it.
The remake was originally announced in May 2020 by the original film's distributor CJ Entertainment, which confirmed Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen would be producing.
“Yorgos Lanthimos is a cinematic visionary with a singular style that has captivated audiences worldwide,” Focus Features' Peter Kujawski told Deadline. “We could not be more excited to partner with him, Emma and the incredible teams at Element, Square Peg and CJ ENM to reimagine this twisted and darkly funny story.”
A Winning Partnership
The pairing of Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone has already become one of the most celebrated director-actor pairings in modern film with what they have already put out.
Stone's first film with Lanthimos as her director was for the 2018 black comedy-period drama The Favourite, which Stone starred in alongside Rachel Weisz and Olivia Coleman. Stone appeared as Abigail Hill, later Abigail Masham, who competes with Weisz's Lady Sarah Churchill to be the favourite of Queen Anne in early 18th Century England.
The role would land Stone her third overall Oscar nomination and second for Best Support Actress.
Stone and Lanthimos reunited for 2023's Poor Things where Stone would play Bella Baxter, a young woman who committed suicide while pregnant and had her brain replaced with her fetus' and ventures out on a journey of self-discovery. The film received widespread acclaim at its release, including being on the National Board of Review's ten best films of 2023.
Stone would subsequently take home her second Oscar for Best Actress, along with a nomination for Best Picture and Lanthimos for Best Director.
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