BUGONIA Launches In-Universe Conspiracy Stunt With New Website & Billboards

The film hits theaters on Halloween.
BUGONIA billboard in New York (Credit: Focus Features)
BUGONIA billboard in New York (Credit: Focus Features)

Ahead of its Halloween release date, Yorgos Lanthimosโ€™s newest film is stirring up some real world conspiracy stunts. Today, an in-universe conspiracy website was launched for Bugonia, featuring a low-fi aesthetic loaded with Easter eggs for the upcoming film, which stars Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, and Alicia Silverstone.ย 

The website โ€” titled Human Resistance HQ โ€” brings to mind the low-tech websites of the โ€˜90s, centered on the filmโ€™s conspiracy theorist protagonists and their belief that the CEO of a major company is an alien intent on destroying Earth.ย 

The websiteโ€™s tabs include โ€œSuspected Andromedans,โ€ which features a deep dive into Stoneโ€™s CEO character Michelle Fuller, in-universe media clips, and a real LinkedIn page for the filmโ€™s fictional company Auxolith; โ€œResearch & Findings,โ€ which pulls up a collection of articles and files tied directly back to the plot of Bugonia; and โ€œSuspected Mothership Viewings,โ€ which features coded messages that gives fans coordinates and times for early fan screenings in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and Boston on October 20.ย ย 

Also launched today are two real-world billboards for Auxolith, featuring Stoneโ€™s Michelle Fuller advertising Auxolithโ€™s pharmaceutical products, with a slogan reading โ€œHealing Tomorrow, Today.โ€ Located in both New York City and Los Angeles, the billboards have been โ€œvandalizedโ€ with phrases that read โ€œAndromedon Filthโ€ and โ€œJoin the Human Resistance.โ€ย 

Bugonia serves as an English language remake of the 2003 Korean film Save the Green Planet!, directed by Jang Joon-hwan and starring Shin Ha-kyun. The film is produced by Ari Aster, Lanthimos, Stone, Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Miky Lee, Jerry Kyoungboum Ko, and Lars Knudsen, and marks Stoneโ€™s fourth collaboration with Lanthimos, after working on The Favourite, Poor Things, and Kinds of Kindness.ย 

Bugonia hits theaters on October 31.