In mid-September 2024, we got a glimpse of Robert Pattinson in his upcoming Sci-fi movie Mickey 17. He has been a fan-favorite character since his appearance in the Twilight Saga film series as Edward Cullen. The actor worked on a handful of science fiction projects, such as Tenet by the G.O.A.T filmmaker Christopher Nolan and High Life by Chris Denis. Now, after doing an incredible job as Batman in Matt Reeves’ first movie, Robert is heading toward Mickey 17, which has fans wondering how a concept like this could be conceived into a film. So, obviously, fans wonder if this is an original film or based on a book. Here’s the answer.
Is Mickey 17 Based on a Book?
Yes, Mickey 17 is the screen adaptation of a book named Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton, which was released in 2022. The book tells the story of Mickey Barnes, a space colonizer who takes on difficult missions and gets killed repeatedly. Mickey is blessed with seven lives, and every time he dies, the deceased one gets replaced by a duplicate who carries the same emotions and memories.
Bong Joon-Ho is a filmmaker who is an absolute risk-taker. We can see this whenever he takes on a project. That’s why he has a cult following, and we never get bored of the films that come from him. However, he had never worked on any English films; instead, all of his previous works were South Korean productions. Finally, he decided to give us a film that would be different, and that made sense when we watched the first trailer of the film.
Despite taking Edward Ashton’s book as the source material, the filmmaker didn’t shy away from adding his personal touch to it. He changed the title of the film, and when asked in CinemaCon, the filmmaker confidently replied, ‘I killed him ten more times; that’s why we changed it.’
So, the ones who saw the character dying seven times may get ready to see Robert Pattinson’s Mickey die even more times. Apart from that, we don’t know what other changes we’ll see in the movie adaptation. It’s out there that the movie will stay faithful to the source material, but there’s always creative liberty, so it would not be surprising if we see some more changes.
