#12. Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer
Gist: Based on the French graphic novel by Benjamin Legrand and Jacques Lob, Snowpiercer 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 Snowpiercer, 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.
Prediction: The last three films to have Bong’s name stamped in the directors credit – The Host, Tokyo!, and Mother – have screened in Cannes, and this one will, too. While Bong has certainly earned an upgrade to a Competition slot, we wonder if this project is too much of a blockbuster to mind up there. Given its genre roots and scale, an Out of Competition or Midnight Screening slot might be the most likely scenario. Wherever it is, though, we’ll be one of the first in line.