Warner Bros. has undated Bong Joon-ho‘s “Mickey 17,” starring Robert Pattinson. The studio also announce a move of “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” to a March 29 release date.
Sources tell Variety that the decision to move the highly anticipated sci-fi movie from the Korean filmmaker was made to allow more time to finish the project, which had been affected due to last year’s strikes and other various production shifts. Thus, the latest installment in Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment’s “Godzilla and Kong” franchise, which was previously scheduled to hit theaters on April 12, will now debut two weeks earlier.
“Mickey 17” is adapted from Edward Ashton’s 2022 novel, described by publisher St. Martin Press as a high-concept cerebral thriller in the vein of “The Martian” and “Dark Matter.” Pattinson plays an “expendable” — a disposable employee on a human expedition sent to colonize an ice planet — who refuses to let his replacement clone take his place.
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Fans got a first look at what Bong’s adaptation would bring in Dec. 2022, when Warner Bros. debuted a cryptic teaser featuring the actor waking up in a chamber. Further plot details have been kept under wraps, but the starry cast also includes Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette and Mark Ruffalo.
“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 the upcoming film through his company Offscreen. Additional producers include Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner of Plan B and Dooho Choi of Kate Street Pictures.