Snowpiercer
Director: Bong Joon-ho
Writer(s): Joon-ho and Kelly Masterson
Producer(s): Steven Nam, Chan-wook Park, Jeong Tae-Sung
U.S. Distributor: The Weinstein Co.
Cast: Chris Evans, Jamie Bell, John Hurt, Alison Pill, Tilda Swinton, Ed Harris, Octavia Spencer, Ewen Bremner
Continuing in our exceptional year graphic novels-to-film adaptations that we’re stoked about, in comes South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho whose fascination for Snowpiercer stems from a visit at a bookstore. I’m curious to see how the South Korean filmmaker who gave The Host and more recently, the underrated Mother , can wrangle in the most stubborn of fiction subgenres – the apocalyptic film.
Gist: Based on the French graphic novel by Benjamin Legrand and Jacques Lob, Snow Piercer is set in a future where, after a failed experiment to stop global warming, an Ice Age kills off all life on the planet except for the inhabitants of the Snow Piercer, a train that travels around the globe and is powered by a sacred perpetual-motion engine. A class system evolves on the train but a revolution brews.
Release Date: Weinsteins know that Bong Joon-ho has a great history/ties with the Cannes Film Festival, so they’ll be looking to include this there, and if they’re smart move themselves into a summer release date making it a tentpole pic just like the major studios.