Yorgos Lanthimos asked composer Jerskin Fendrix to create the scores for Pauvres Créatures (2023) & Kinds of Kindness (2024), by reading the scripts without seeing any footage of the films. For Bugonia (2025), Lanthimos did not provide the script, giving Fendrix only "four key words" to work with.
Bugonia (2025) is an adaptation inspired by the 2003 South Korean film Save the Green Planet! (2003). Initially, the original director, Jang Joon-hwan, was set to helm the project, working with American screenwriter Will Tracy on the screenplay. Due to health-related delays that prevented Jang Joon-hwan's continued involvement, CJ Entertainment, drawn to Yorgos Lanthimos' distinctive directorial vision, appointed him to lead the project forward instead.
Emma Stone's fifth collaboration with Yorgos Lanthimos after La Favorite (2018), Vlihi (2022), Pauvres Créatures (2023), and Kinds of Kindness (2024).
Bugonia (2025) will feature new, unknown professional actors alongside stars Jesse Plemons and Emma Stone. This was a deliberate choice by Lanthimos, who is well-known for frequently casting both professional and non-professional unknown actors in his films. This time, however, their contribution will evidently be more significant.
After successfully employing VistaVision for the reanimation sequence in Pauvres Créatures (2023), director Yorgos Lanthimos decided to use this technology for the majority of scenes in this film. This is the third film of the 21st century shot mostly in VistaVision, after The Brutalist (2024) and Une bataille après l'autre (2025).