Bong Joon-ho’s Upcoming Film ‘Mickey 17’ Featuring Robert Pattinson Faces Delay, Now Set for 2025 Release

Mickey 17’s Release Postponed

South Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s directorial American science fiction film Mickey 17 has been postponed to 2025. The much anticipated collaboration has been pushed back for a further release citing several reasons for it. According to Warner Bros., The sci-fi movie will now debut on Jan. 31, 2025, after the movie was removed from its scheduled March 29, 2024, release date. Instead, “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” has been given a two week earlier release, to take its place.

As far as the film’s current competition goes, the movie opens in a window between “Paddington in Peru,” which expands to U.S. theaters on Jan. 17, and Marvel’s “Captain America: Brave New World,” which is slated to open two weeks later on Feb. 14.

Reasons For Delay

When the move was announced last month, sources told Variety that the decision was made to allow more time to finish the project, which had been affected due to last year’s SAG-AFTRA strike, delays in post-productions and other various production shifts.

An IMAX Release

The delay in the release has one more advantage. An IMAX release hadn’t been possible in this year as the dates were swamped with bookings from other titles and releases, but with a 2025 release, it’s entirely possible. Additionally, the January date coincides with the east Asian festival of Lunar New Year, which promises even more rush in the movie halls.

January: A Box Office Dead Zone

Releasing a film in January can be a strategic move, as it falls outside of the busy summer blockbuster season and the holiday season, potentially allowing it to capture the attention of audiences who are not bombarded with other major releases. Additionally, January is often a slow month at the box office, so Mickey 17 could potentially benefit from less competition.

Without many new releases and many of the bigger hits (like last year’s “Wonka,” 2019’s “Aquaman” or 2015’s “American Sniper”) carrying over from strong late December debuts, the thriller would enjoy a much larger audience. A long-awaited movie like “Mickey 17” might benefit from pent-up demand, especially as this corridor of the release calendar has been successful for recent hits like “M3GAN,” “Bad Boys for Life,” the “Scream” reboot and “Split.”

Drawbacks

The drawbacks of a January release include:

• Post-holiday slump: Post-holiday spending can leave audiences less inclined to spend on movie tickets.
• Winter weather: Cold and snowy weather might deter people from going to theaters.
• Awards season distraction: Awards ceremonies and nominations might divert attention away from new releases.

A Litte More About The Movie

Cast

Batman star Robert Pattinson will play an “expendable” on a human expedition to colonize an ice planet. His character is a disposable crew member on a space mission, selected for dangerous tasks because he can be renewed if his body dies, with his memories largely intact. With one regeneration, though, things go very wrong.

As he refuses to let his replacement clone take his place, he ends up sparking a one-sided interstellar war. Other cast members include Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo, whose specific character details are being kept under wraps.

Crew

Directed By Bong Joon Ho

Bong Joon Ho, one of the most famous contemporary Korean filmmakers, is known for directing globally-acclaimed films such as “Memories of Murder”, “The Host”, “Snowpiercer” and “Okja”. Mickey 17 is Bong’s first feature since Parasite, which became the highest-grossing Korean film in history, as well as the first non-English language movie to win Best Picture at the Oscars. In addition to writing and directing, Bong also produces upcoming films through his company Offscreen. Charles Yu wrote additional literary material for the film.

Other Crew

Additional producers include Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner of Plan B and Dooho Choi of Kate Street Pictures. Production began at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden on August 2, 2022 and concluded in December 2022. Furthermore, Mickey 17 is shot by cinematographer Darius Khondji, with production design by Fiona Crombie. Jinmo Yang who has worked in Parasite, will be the editor of this film as well. The music is by composer Jae-il Jung, who had previously worked with Bong Joon Ho in Parasite.

Plot

The film is adapted from Edward Ashton’s 2022 novel Mickey7, described by publisher St. Martin Press as a high-concept cerebral thriller in the vein of The Martian and Dark Matter. The story follows a space explorer, Mickey Barnes, aka Mickey7, as he is on his seventh cloned iteration, surviving on a beachhead installation on an alien ice world, Niflheim. After six deaths, Mickey7 understands the terms of his deal…and why it was the only colonial position unfilled when he took it.

On a fairly routine scouting mission, Mickey7 goes missing and is presumed dead. By the time he returns to the colony base, surprisingly helped back by native life, Mickey7’s fate has been sealed. There’s a new clone, Mickey8, reporting for Expendable duties. The idea of duplicate Expendables is universally loathed, and if caught, they will likely be thrown into the recycler for protein.

Mickey7 must keep his double a secret from the rest of the colony. Meanwhile, life on Niflheim is getting worse. The atmosphere is unsuitable for humans, food is in short supply, and terraforming is going poorly. The native species are growing curious about their new neighbors, and that curiosity has Commander Marshall very afraid. Ultimately, the survival of both lifeforms will come down to Mickey7.

When asked about the adaptation, Ashton responded that Bong is “going to change a lot about the book.” but said he is not nervous and described Bong as a “genius.” A sequel to the book, Antimatter Blues, was released in March 2023.