Emma Stone stars in the Emma Stone Bugonia lead role as Michelle Fuller, a business executive targeted by conspiracy theorists in Yorgos Lanthimos’s energetic and satirical take on alien invasion, set for release in cinemas on October 30, 2025. The film, which blends sci-fi and comedy, brings together industry notables including screenwriter Will Tracy, producer Ari Aster, and Stone’s own production company, Fruit Tree, to reinvent a cult Korean classic for new audiences.
Lanthimos Finds Fresh Inspiration with Bugonia
Yorgos Lanthimos, the Greek-born director behind acclaimed films like “The Favourite” and “Poor Things,” was searching for work that would reignite his creativity after a demanding streak of back-to-back projects. In his words,
“comes at a point where I’ve made a lot of films, and a lot of them were back-to-back, and it started becoming not as pleasant as it used to be,”
Lanthimos reflects on his recent filmography. The opportunity arrived when Ari Aster sent him Will Tracy’s complete script for “Bugonia,” a new take on the 2003 Korean sci-fi comedy “Save The Green Planet!” Lanthimos responded immediately:
“I just thought it was incredible from the first read. It was such an easy read and exciting and entertaining and complex, and all the things that I’m striving to do when I develop something.”
Departing from his usual collaborative writing process with figures like Efthimis Filippou and Tony McNamara, Lanthimos embraced this ready-to-shoot scenario, which allowed him to focus on direction and storytelling with a fresh, outside perspective.
Emma Stone Leads as Michelle Fuller
For Emma Stone, this role represents both a professional and personal milestone. This marks her fourth consecutive collaboration with Lanthimos, following their work on “The Favourite” and “Poor Things,” and brings her production company, Fruit Tree—co-founded with husband Dave McCary—directly into the project. The actress lauded the unique script and its origins:
“Ari Aster loved the original movie,”
Stone notes, highlighting the respect the creators have for the source material.
Stone’s character, Michelle Fuller, is a powerful CEO who becomes the target of Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and Don (Aidan Delbis), two conspiracy theorists who kidnap her in the belief that she belongs to an alien race with sinister intentions. Stone’s role is a gender swap from the original, bringing new tension and subtext to the film’s premise.
“I think the ambiguity of that is really fascinating,”
Stone remarks, further describing the complexities involved when two men abduct a female CEO. She continues,
“Being a woman, these two men taking her and tying her up in a basement immediately becomes pretty intense and there’s obviously a lot of questions around that which are answered throughout the film. I don’t want to give anything away, but they take shots. There are all kinds of things that are going on… I mean, it’s violent, but it’s not as fraught as you might initially think it could become.”
Building Trust and Character in Collaboration
The rapport between Stone and Lanthimos has become one of the partnership’s defining features.
“We’ve gotten along for over a decade now. We really are drawn to similar kinds of stories and worlds,”
Stone says.
“Once we met, it felt like a person that I got along with so well and that I could trust, and then doing The Favourite together just enhanced that.”
Their longstanding working relationship has allowed for a creative shorthand, enabling Stone to fully participate in shaping her on-screen personas. She describes their process:
“It’s definitely a collaboration. But I think when it comes to the script or the character, whatever that character is doing, I try to give myself over to that as much as I possibly can. But, if there’s something that I don’t agree with, we talk about it…and then I don’t do it!”
For “Bugonia,” Stone meticulously crafted Michelle Fuller’s visual and emotional identity from the outside in:
“It was a very particular look for Michelle, because she wears the same costume throughout the entire film, basically. So, it was very specific. This could be something that would work all throughout. It took a while to nail down exactly how she would dress… and also deciding that she would have a uniform – like Steve Jobs or Elizabeth Holmes, wearing the same thing over and over. If you see in her closet, she has the same shirts, the same suits. And also, in every photo of her, she’s wearing the same thing.”
Alien Conspiracies and Social Satire
At its core, “Bugonia” weaves together elements of alien conspiracy with corporate satire—a combination that gives Lanthimos ample room for commentary on current events.
“I think that’s always the intention, to ask questions about our nature or society or the political situation or the world, or whatever that is,”
Lanthimos explains. He adds,
“I mean, it has become more relevant since we started working on it, three or four years ago, and probably when Will was writing five years ago. So, yeah, it’s just like a coincidence, a bad coincidence, an unfortunate coincidence… the state of the world is truly reflected by the film.”
Lanthimos admits that while actor Jesse Plemons immersed himself in fan culture at AlienCon, he personally avoided delving into research on extraterrestrial theories until after the main production ended:
“I got into the alien stuff, but after the film. I didn’t want to go into it while we were making the film and get all confused. But afterwards, I started listening to a lot of these people that have all these theories about aliens, and if all the stuff that the American government is supposed to have retrieved is real or not… That whole thing, I really got into it.”
Through this exploration, Lanthimos reflects on the complexity of separating truth from fiction in the modern era.
“The funny thing is some of them [the wild theories] are also real. People do construct lies. I mean, a lot. So, everybody… especially now with technology as AI advances and all that… it’s so difficult to tell what’s real, so you need a lot of investigation to believe in something. So, that just becomes nature. In that way, we’ll all become conspiracy theorists, because you have to do so much research and start believing in things that will just become second nature. We all have a theory about stuff.”
Human Nature Explored Through Conspiracy
Stone, reflecting on the prevalence of conspiracies, sees them as a form of social comfort:
“We’re stranded out here on this planet alone, and we’re trying to make sense of what life is supposed to be, what it means,”
she says. She continues,
“Now there’s many more billions of people than there were at the dawn of mankind. Once you look at one thing, you’re fed that same thing again. And it made it so easy for you to fall down these rabbit holes. I think about teenagers all the time; if they’re being bullied, or they’re targeted… they’re falling down this rabbit hole, as if this really is the only reality. This really is the only existence.”
The film’s narrative, poised between comedy and violence, aims to humanize both the captors and the captive while examining how people construct and hold onto their own explanations of reality. With supporting performances from Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis, and a story that sees Michelle’s character subjected to extreme suspicion and suspicion-turned-aggression, “Bugonia” is positioned as both a subversive science fiction romp and a timely commentary on the nature of belief.
Anticipation Builds for Bugonia’s Release
With its scheduled release on October 30, 2025, “Bugonia” is poised to attract audiences eager for sharp satire, bold performances, and fresh takes on classic sci-fi dilemmas. The collaborative synergy among Emma Stone, Yorgos Lanthimos, and the creative team, including Ari Aster and Will Tracy, suggests that “Bugonia” will not only entertain but also provoke discussions about truth, authority, and how conspiracy shapes modern society. As the film readies for its cinematic debut, anticipation grows for what promises to be another innovative entry in the careers of its distinguished cast and crew.
