A few days after the dismissal of Josh Goldstine as the president of Warner Bros. Pictures marketing, there appears to be a shift in the promotion of Bong Joon Ho’s long-awaited follow-up to “Parasite.” There is no official word from the Berlinale, but reports indicate that “Mickey 17” will have its European premiere out of competition at the 2025 Berlin Film Festival. The world premiere is expected to occur in South Korea, before the film’s February 28 release.
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Starring Robert Pattinson, Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette, Steven Yeun, and Naomi Ackie, the movie is an adaptation of Edward Ashton‘s 2022 novel “Mickey 7.” Production began in August 2022 and word is Joon Ho delivered a finished film to Warner Bros. in November 2023. The studio and producers reportedly wanted changes and dropped the film on a dead date of January 31, 2025, hoping to secure them. This was an eye-brow-raising date for the follow-up from the director of the first non-English Language film to ever win Best Picture (Joon Ho won three Oscars that night). The excuse from the studio was that it was looking for a date with the most IMAX screens available. It’s unclear if Joon Ho made the requested changes (or if they were possible), but the $118 million budgeted tent pole eventually moved to April 18 before finally landing on March 7.
It has been apparent to many that there has been a disconnect at Warner Bros. over how to market the film. The official South Korean trailer provides a slightly more serious, less slapstick tone while the U.S. marketing portrays the picture as much more of a comedy.
This is Joon Ho’s second English-language film after “Okja,” which debuted at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival before arriving on Netflix worldwide.
“Mickey 17” is scheduled to open nationwide on March 7.
Editor-at-Large Gregory Ellwood is one of the entertainment industry's most respected journalists and critics. Based in Los Angeles, he's the only current awards expert who previously worked on Oscar campaigns at a major movie studio. Over the years, he has written for the LA Times, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and Vox, among others. He also co-founded the entertainment news site HitFix, which spawned a legion of influential Emmy and WGA Award-winning alumni.
