Is Warner Bros. marketing a completely different movie than what South Korean and Award-winning “Parasite” filmmaker Bong Joon-Ho “Memories of Murder”) intended with his upcoming sci-fi film “Mickey 17,” or is it just a case of tailoring to radically different audiences and territories?
The U.S. trailer for “Mickey 17,” which stars Robert Pattinson (“The Batman,” “Tenet”), Naomi Ackie (“Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker”), Steven Yeun (“Nope”), with Academy Award nominees Toni Collette (“Hereditary”), and Mark Ruffalo (“Poor Things”), was yes, irreverent and elevated with notes of flippant comedy.
However, a newly released Korean trailer for the film, written and directed by Joon Ho, shows off quite a bit of new footage and perhaps an even goofier, more comical tone.
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One wonders if tone is part of some of the issues “Mickey 17” has faced. Originally expected in March 2024—reportedly due to VFX issues—the film was eventually rescheduled for a January 2025 opening—which isn’t great considering there’s an Oscar-winner behind the film and January is traditionally known as a dumping ground for movies studios don’t feel confident about. Who knows, but it still feels like perhaps the studio doesn’t know what to make of the movie.
“Mickey 17” is produced by Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner (Oscar winners for “Moonlight” and “12 Years a Slave”), Bong Joon Ho, and Dooho Choi (“Okja,” “Snowpiercer”). It is based on the novel Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton. The executive producers are Brad Pitt, Jesse Ehrman, Peter Dodd, and Marianne Jenkins. The director of photography is Darius Khondji (Oscar nomination for “Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths,” “Okja”).
Here’s the official synopsis:
From the Academy Award-winning writer/director of “Parasite,” Bong Joon Ho, comes his next groundbreaking cinematic experience, “Mickey 17.” The unlikely hero, Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson), finds himself in the extraordinary circumstance of working for an employer who demands the ultimate commitment to the job… to die for a living.
Warner Bros. Pictures will distribute the film worldwide, in theaters only nationwide on January 31, 2025, and internationally beginning on January 28, 2025. Watch this new South Korean trailer below.