Venice premiere, domestic release, and the Bugonia remake

The project Bugonia marks a Hollywood revival of Korea’s so‑called “cursed masterpiece,” Earth Must Be Protected. Its debut followed a Venice Film Festival reveal this September, with a domestic release arriving five days later. The original film first hit theaters 22 years and seven months earlier, underscoring a long gap between the two versions.

Ari Aster, renowned for his horror work, is tied to the remake after CJ ENM proposed the project and Aster readily agreed to take part. The screenplay was developed with Will Tracy, and the team brought in Yorgos Lanthimos, whose Golden Lion–winning stature at Venice helped propel the project forward after seven years.

The remake diverges notably from the original in its central premise: while the original depicted a heterosexual couple kidnapping the male CEO of a chemical company, Bugonia has two men identifying a female CEO as an alien, creating a distinct dynamic and tension. Tracy explained that abducting a female CEO could yield a different atmosphere than the original.

Bugonia centers on the interactions among the kidnapper Ted and Don, plus the female CEO Michelle, and largely omits the police investigation that framed the original. Unlike the original dystopia’s blunt social critique, this remake directly critiques profit-driven environmental destruction and humanity’s endless wars, embedding a more somber, allegorical mood into its finish. The metaphor of the title remains closely tied to the story’s ending, signaling a shift from catastrophe to a hint of hope.

Lanthismos emphasized at Venice that the film’s dystopia is not merely a sci-fi conceit but a reflection of the real world. Critics note that the dystopian vision in Bugonia largely mirrors contemporary realities, inviting viewers to ponder today’s fragilities while holding out a glimmer of hope for the future.