Yorgos Lanthimos, who will celebrate his 52nd birthday next month, has won numerous awards for his works such as Dogtooth, The Favourite and Poor Things over the past decade, and is considered to be the most famous Greek director in the world of film. He was also a member of the creative team when Athens hosted the Olympic Games in 2004. However, earlier this month, he applied to the Greek authorities to use the Acropolis as the filming location for his new film Bugonia, but was rejected by the Greek Ministry of Culture. The official statement clearly stated that the reason for the rejection was: "The plot involved is inconsistent with the symbolic meaning and values represented by the Acropolis."
A black cat in front of the ancient Temple of the Goddess Athena on the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, on April 13, 2025, local time. Visual China Photo
On June 24, 2024, local time, in London, England, director Yorgos Lanthimos, actors Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons attended a special screening of the film "The Kind of Kind". Visual China Photo
"Saving Earth" is a remake of the Korean film of the same name. It tells the story of the CEO of a large pharmaceutical company played by Emma Stone, who was suddenly kidnapped. The kidnapper, played by Jesse Plemons, is a beekeeper by profession. The reason for the kidnapping is that he firmly believes that she is not actually human, but an alien creature who intends to destroy the earth.
The original "Saving the Planet" is considered a masterpiece of Korean cult films.
The original Korean version in 2003 was written and directed by Jang Joon-hwan, who was born in 1970. Shin Ha-kyun and Baek Yoon-sik played the kidnapper and the capitalist who was kidnapped and tortured respectively. That year, the film won the Best New Director and Best Supporting Actor awards at the Blue Dragon Awards in Korea. It is also regarded as a representative work of Korean cult films for its imaginative plot design and various large-scale scenes.
The title of Lanthimos' remake, Bugonia, comes from a ritual in Greek legend, which itself has a cult quality. According to historical records, the ancient Greeks believed that if they locked a bull in a sealed room, hit the bull's body with a stick to break its bones and flesh, and then blocked its seven orifices and excretion holes with linen, after three weeks of sealing and standing, they would find that the bull's body had completely disappeared, replaced by a room full of bees.
In ancient Greek mythology, Aristaeus, the son of Apollo, was punished by God for accidentally killing Orpheus' wife Eurydice. A large number of his bees became sick and died. To make up for his mistake, he built an altar and offered a cow as a sacrifice. Three days later, a new colony of bees was bred from the cow's corpse, and the bees raised by this god of agriculture were never troubled by disease again.
Bugonia literally means "offspring of cattle" in Greek, and is sometimes used to directly refer to bees. The reason why the new version of "Saving the Planet" uses this title is probably related to the kidnapper's identity as a beekeeper. Lanthimos originally wanted to use the Acropolis to shoot a major scene: between the entrance gate of the Acropolis and the main building of the Parthenon, more than 70 actors were arranged to lie on the ground and play the role of corpses.
Initially, the filming request seemed to be welcomed by the Greek Ministry of Culture, who even agreed to waive the standard filming fee of the Acropolis - about 1,984 euros per day - in recognition of the various overseas attention the director has won for Greece. However, the Greek Archaeological Committee, which is responsible for the specific supervision of the Acropolis, later rejected Lanthimos's filming request on the grounds that filming such a scene on the Acropolis was not solemn enough and was extremely inconsistent with the symbolic significance of this cultural relic.
The Acropolis of Athens was formed in the fifth century BC and was listed as a World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in 1987. It attracts a large number of tourists from all over the world every year. Many films have been shot here, such as "The Golden Dolphin" starring Sophia Loren, "Emerald Jade" starring Andy Lau, "Mediterranean" starring Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst, and "Before Midnight" directed by Richard Linklater.
The Golden Dolphin, starring Sophia Loren, is set against the backdrop of the Acropolis.
Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst play a couple traveling to the Acropolis in Mediterraneo.
Of course, the scenes involving the Acropolis in the above-mentioned films mostly emphasize its grandeur and the weight of its vicissitudes of history, which is indeed very different from the scenes of the zombie city that "Saving Earth" originally planned to shoot.
The new version of "Saving the Planet" is a co-production between South Korea and the United States. It is expected to be released around the world in November this year and is expected to enter the next awards season.
