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Billboard Women in Music 2025
Wes Anderson brought the impossibly twee “The Phoenician Scheme” to Las Vegas while Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone showcased the creepy, bee-filled “Bugonia” at CinemaCon.
Anderson’s latest film, an espionage thriller, debuted a first-look trailer on Wednesday as part of Universal’s presentation to theater owners. The studio’s indie arm, Focus Features, is distributing “The Phoenician Scheme,” marking the third collaboration with Anderson after 2012’s “Moonrise Kingdom” and 2023’s “Asteroid City.”
Benicio del Toro stars in the film as Zsa-zsa Korda, one of the richest men in Europe, while Mia Threapleton plays his daughter and Michael Cera portrays her tutor. In the trailer, which hasn’t been made available to the public, Zsa-zsa Korda survives a plane crash (his sixth!) and decides to take that as a sign — so he arranges to bestow his estate to his daughter. The ultra-stylized footage will feel familiar to fans of Anderson, with several familiar faces in the filmmaker’s cinematic universe — including Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Riz Ahmed, Mathieu Amalric, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Richard Ayoade, Rupert Friend, Hope Davis and Benedict Cumberbatch — appearing in the extended sequences.
Focus offered a briefer look at “Bugonia,” showcasing only a snippet of the latest collaboration between Lanthimos and Stone after “The Favourite,” “Poor Things” and “Kinds of Kindness.” The film, a remake of the South Korean sci-fi comedy “Save the Green Planet,” revolves around two conspiracy-obsessed friends who kidnap the high-powered CEO (Stone) of a major corporation, convinced the executive is an alien intent on destroying Earth.
Scored to dread-inspiring music, the teaser footage begins with a voiceover by Jesse Plemmons, who plays a conspiracist beekeeper. “It all starts with something magnificent: a flower and a honey bee,” he narrates ominously over intercut shots of beehives. “The workers gather pollen for the queen. The bees are dying as the workers desert the queen. The colony wastes away.”
Before fading to black, Plemmons is seen shaving off Stone’s long reddish locks as the camera zooms on a stomach-turning closeup where the Oscar-winning actress looks… not quite human.
“The Phoenician Scheme” will open in limited release on May 30 and expand wide on June 6. “Bugonia” lands in theaters on Nov. 7.
Anderson, Lanthimos and Stone were absent from CinemaCon. Instead, Focus Features chairman Peter Kujawski introduced the movies and emphasized the studio’s commitment to theatrical.
“Our films again, every single one of them, is made for the vital theatrical experience,” Kujawski told the room of cinema owners. “I really can’t stress that enough.”