Bong-Joon Ho’s Parasite follow-up, Mickey 17, has been a source of much interest, as Bong is allegedly engaged in a power struggle with executives at Warner Bros. Discovery for final cut of the film. I wonder if that situation is now resolved, because the first trailer for Mickey 17 has been released, confirming its January 2025 release date, and it looks GREAT. I mean, it’s Bong Joon-ho, it’s not going to look bad. But this looks really fun. Like REALLY fun. Like “release it during the holidays, you knobs, this is a winner” fun.
Robert Pattinson stars as a future man who signs up to be an “expendable”, who is “reprinted” every time he dies doing dangerous grunt work in space. This means we’re getting multiple RPattz performances, and he is doing at least one (1) Silly Voice as the titular Mickey 17. The trailer teases Mickeys 1, 11, and 18, though, so we’re in for a lot of RPattz performances going every which way because apparently, the reprints of Mickey don’t all come out exactly the same. The film also stars Naomi Ackie, Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo, and Steven Yeun.
This looks very much in the realm of Snowpiercer, aesthetically, which I’m fine with because that film looks incredible. I’m also into the hook of the multiple Mickeys trying to kill each other, it looks quite funny, but with Bong, a film is never just one thing. Parasite has a lot of humor and stills pulls off that gutting ending. And I’m DEFINITELY into Robert Pattinson going ham on multiple roles. Lainey already texted me that she doesn’t like his Mickey 17 voice, but I love it. Robert Pattinson can forever get away with doing weird things on screen, because he never makes his weird choice of the day feel like a crutch, and in this case, particularly, the voice is part of delineating between versions of Mickey. I assume all the Mickeys will have at least slightly different voices.
I cannot believe we’re being made to wait until January for this, when there are a few weekends remaining in November and December that are currently very light on wide releases. You could sell Mickey 17 with the same kind of “dysfunctional family, anti-holiday movie” rhetoric previously used for Knives Out, and probably get a decent hit out of it. Robert Pattinson is a VERY popular actor, Bong Joon-ho is a recent Oscar winner, Mickey 17 is based on a very well received novel. Mashup the marketing of Knives Out and The Martian and Mickey 17 could have been holiday counterprogramming. Instead, we’re waiting for January. You will never convince me David Zaslav didn’t try to delete this movie. At least we’ll get to see it eventually.
Here's RPattz in Paris last week at the 2024 LVMH Prize Ceremony.
