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Mickey 17: Why director Bong Joon Ho cast Robert Pattinson as the lead to his upcoming movie (and why Pattinson signed on)

It's all in the eyes (that's where it is)

Robert Pattinson in Mickey 17 — Image credit: Warner Bros

Features by Tiffany Babb, Contributing writer

Published on Thu Apr 11 2024

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Casting a lead actor in a film can be a very complicated thing - especially when your actor is going to be playing multiple characters as Robert Pattinson will be doing in Bong Joon Ho's upcoming sci-fi movie Mickey 17. So how does one choose that special actor to collaborate with?

According to Bong Joon Ho? Look into the eyes. At CinemaCon on Tuesday, Bong Joon Ho took the stage during Warner Bros' presentation to chat all things Mickey 17 (and share a tiny bit of footage too). About why he cast Robert Pattinson in the film, the Parasite director said, "He's got a crazy thing in his eyes." After a laugh or two, he went a bit more in depth, saying “I felt like he could do all the different variations of Mickey in the story and during the shooting, he is such a creative man. All the ideas he has. Especially creating Mickey 18, he really inspired me.”

As for why Pattinson chose to sign onto the film, the actor shared with the CinemaCon audience that “I’ve been the biggest fan of Bong for many many years. I got sent the script, I was told ‘You're gonna love the script, but the part is impossible’ - and that’s very exciting to me.” Pattinson called the Mickey 17 script one of the most “unusual bizarre” scripts hes ever seen in his life

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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