The National Times - Musk and space travel skewered in S. Korean director Bong's latest

The writer and director of the Oscar-winning 2019 hit "Parasite" returns to screens with a darkly comic take on the sci-fi genre starring British actor Robert Pattinson as Mickey, an intrepid but accident-prone space explorer.

"It's about someone who is powerless, but who unexpectedly becomes a hero," Bong said at the Berlin Film Festival.

The plot revolves around a megalomaniac billionaire with a resemblance to Musk -- played with brio by "Avengers" star Mark Ruffalo -- who boards a spaceship travelling to colonise an icy planet in a not-too-distant future.

Mickey is a struggling working-class passenger known as an "expendable" who is chosen to undertake all the most dangerous missions aboard the vessel.

"It's the first time I'm delving into just how silly and foolish people can be, and how that foolishness can actually make them more loveable," added Bong, who adapted the book "Mickey 7" by sci-fi writer Edward Ashton to write the screenplay.

After the acidic takedown of upper-class life in Seoul in "Parasite", the 55-year-old admits his new film is warmer in tone and a break from the "ruthless and cynical" mood of his previous work.

- 'Harsh place' -

He denied making films "just for the sake of political satire", but it is hard to look past current affairs when watching his latest creation.

Musk, who has emerged as one of US President Donald Trump's most trusted aides, is in the vanguard of Silicon Valley's right-wing "tech-utopians" who believe innovation can solve everything from the climate crisis to human mortality.

The South African-born Tesla boss has spent billions of dollars developing rockets at his SpaceX company to send a manned mission to Mars by 2030, with interplanetary travel seen by him as crucial for humanity's survival.

The ambition was given a boost by Trump during his inauguration speech on January 20 when he vowed to "plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars".

Other US billionaires such as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos are also engaged in a private space race.

In "Mickey 17", passengers hop on the rocket ship almost casually for a variety of reasons, with Mickey seeking to escape his problems on Earth.

"It's not that the Earth goes extinct -- it just becomes a harsh place to live in, so people end up leaving. They get on a spaceship like it's a red-eye flight from LA to New York," Bong explained.

It is not the first time a dystopian future provides the backdrop to a Bong film, with his 2013 movie "Snowpiercer" set on a train following a failed climate change experiment that has plunged the planet into a new ice age.

"Mickey 17", a Warner Bros. production, will be released first in South Korea on February 28 before appearing in cinemas internationally from March 5.

D.S.Robertson--TNT