“Are you bald, or willing to become bald?” So reads the attention-grabbing headline for an early screening of Focus Features‘ conspiracy thriller Bugonia, which stars Emma Stone as a high-powered CEO who is kidnapped and subsequently shaved.
An invite for the event, put on by DoLA at the Culver Theater in Los Angeles this coming Monday, promises a special advanced showing of Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest feature for “anyone who is bald. If you are not bald, we will have a barber on site to shave your head in order for you to watch the film.”
Though the screening commences at 8 p.m., a barber will be onsite beginning at 6 p.m. to start shaving heads. The first-come, first-serve promotional screening will be filmed for marketing purposes, and the free tickets do not guarantee admission.
The stunt is the latest in a series of outside-the-box promotional tactics for films: Just last month, Lionsgate hosted a special early screening (also at the Culver Theater) for its Stephen King adaptation The Long Walk, in which attendees had to maintain a 3 mile-per-hour walking speed on a treadmill or else risk getting kicked out of the theater. The creative gimmick mirrored the rules of the game in the film — about a 1970s-era fascist America in which boys volunteer to compete in a walking marathon for a beguiling cash prize — albeit with notably less fatal consequences.
Bugonia, which saw its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, is prepping for a limited release Oct. 24, to be followed by a wide expansion on Halloween. The sci-fi satire centers on an executive who is taken by a pair of conspiracy-obsessed men (Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis) convinced she is an alien intent on destroying Earth.
Watch the trailer here.
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