Bugonia with Will Tracy

Today on the show – a conversation about Bugonia, with the film’s writer, Will Tracy. Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the upcoming Academy Awards, the Yorgos Lanthimos-directed film is an black comedy thriller about a pharmaceutical CEO, Michelle, played by Emma Stone, who’s kidnapped by a conspiracy theorist, Ted, played by Jesse Plemmons. Ted is convinced that Michelle is not of this planet. He’s insistent that she’s an infiltrator from an alien world, responsible for the collapse of Earth’s bee population and plotting a full-scale invasion. 

The film’s an adaptation of a South Korean film from 2003, Jang Joon-hwan’s Save The Green Planet, but feels tailormade for 2026. After all, could you really blame someone for believing a pharmaceutical company CEO to be an alien, given the coldness they often exhibit and the corporate babble they speak. If you’re someone like Ted, all that empty LinkedIn speak about “synergy” and “Q1 shortfalls” and “creative solutions” may as well be an alien language, right? That’s the cleverness of the conceit in Bugonia. In 2026, there’s a chasm between the boardroom overlords who steer society and the people left behind by their decisions – especially when it comes to medicine in America, Michelle’s company’s MO – and Will’s script speaks to that chasm with sci-fi invention and offbeat humour. 

Right now, those of you familiar with the screenwriter’s work, might be thinking: “Yeah, of course it does! Have you seen this guy’s CV?” And those people have got a point. Succession! The Menu! Mountainhead, on which he acted as a producer! These are all stories laser-focused on issues of class, staring into that aforementioned chasm between the haves and have-nots from different angles. In the spoiler conversation you’re about to hear, I get into the thematic throughlines between some of these stories and what draws Will to them, as well as the secrets behind the most fascinating twists and turns within this story. 

Support for today's episode comes from Final Draft's Big Break screenwriting contest.

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