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Mickey 17: The sci-fi novel Bong Joon Ho and Robert Pattinson's new movie is based on

The new movie from the Parasite director is based on a 2022 novel by Ashton Edward

Cropped cover of Mickey7 — Image credit: Griffin

Features by Tiffany Babb, Contributing writer

Published on Thu Apr 11 2024

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There's been a lot of mystery surrounding Bong Joon Ho's upcoming movie Mickey 17 and what it's about. Now, just out of CinemaCon 2024, we're getting a few more hints to the film's plot.

On Tuesday at CinemaCon during the Warner Bros presentation, Bong Joon Ho shared that Mickey 17 is based off a novel titled Mickey7, by Ashton Edward. The novel follows a man named Mickey who signs up to be an "expendable" who gets a new body each time he dies.

During the early trailer screened at CinemaCon (which has yet to be released online), audiences saw Robert Pattinson as Mickey 17 as he comically faces the dregs of his own life until something even worse happens - a clone is made of him before he dies.

Astute readers at this point may be wondering why the movie is titled Mickey 17 when the book is titled Mickey7. Bong Joon Ho had an answer for this, "The number is the number of times he died. I killed him ten times more."

As for what brought the acclaimed director to the project in the first place, Bong Joon Ho said that the film is "about a simple man who ends up saving the world, so it’s a very strange kind of hero's journey. I don’t feel like I’m the right type of filmmaker to make a typical hero's journey. I found a strange way into it."

Mickey 17 currently has a release date for January 31, 2025 , after being moved from its original release date in March 2024.

Keep track of everything that's happened at CinemaCon 2024 right here at Popverse.

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