Emma Stone draws disturbing parallels between 'Bugonia' and CEO killer Luigi Mangione

Los Angeles, Aug 31 (IANS) Hollywood actress Emma Stone, who will be soon seen in the upcoming satirical absurdist science fiction dark comedy ‘Bugonia’, has drawn some disturbing parallels between the Mangione case and the central plot of ‘Bugonia’.

‘Bugonia’, helmed by Yorgos Lanthimos, tells the story of a Pharma bigwig (played by Emma) who gets kidnapped by two young men. The film is a remake of the South Korean film ‘Save the Green Planet’, reports ‘Variety’.

Emma says the plot is terrifyingly similar to Luigi Mangione, the alleged killer of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Emma Stone is Lanthimos’ most decorated collaborator and a producer on the new movie. The Oscar-winning actress revealed on Saturday at the Telluride Film Festival that Thompson was gunned down and Mangione was captured just after her movie wrapped production in 2024.

As per ‘Variety’, in ‘Bugonia’, Emma Stone plays a ruthless high-powered medical company CEO who is kidnapped by a low-level employee (Jesse Plemons). So convinced that Stone is an alien from the Andromeda galaxy sent to dismantle humanity, the conspiracy-obsessed employee holds his CEO captive and bone-breaking torture ensues.

“What’s really crazy, after we had shot the film – I live in New York – we heard someone was shot up the street. It was a healthcare CEO. You know, because Luigi. You guys heard about this?”, Emma Stone said during a Q&A following the Telluride premiere.

The film had its world premiere in the main competition of the 82nd Venice International Film Festival on August 28, 2025, and will be theatrically released in the United States by Focus Features on October 24, 2025.

“It was wild, because we had all just been in a basement [filming] together talking about these issues and the bigger meaning of everything. It keeps hitting you that the world is so deeply fraught and terrifying in so many ways”, she concluded.

--IANS

aa/