Director Bong Joon-ho has confirmed that the version of Snowpiercer distributed by the Weinstein Company will not be his director’s cut.
It was previously reported that the Weinsteins will be cutting about 20 minutes from Snowpiercer, which stars Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton, Song Kang-ho, John Hurt, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer, Ed Harris and Alison Pill, but many had hoped that the widespread despair at the prospect would make the distributors change their minds. This has not been the case.
Variety reports that Bong Joon-ho pointedly told English-speaking audiences at the Busan Film Festival to make sure to watch it as “We are still in discussions about the cut, but it is clear that this is the only director’s cut you will be able to see.”
Variety also reports that sources close to the director have said he is “privately furious.” Snowpiercer has been a massive hit in his native South Korea, grossing $61.5 million so far.
Tilda Swinton aired her grievances back in September, stating “There’s no question that all English-speaking audiences deserve to see director Bong’s cut, and we hope very much that we will all see it. Maybe an effect of the film, it just occurred to me, is that when one has spent two hours in the claustrophobia of this train we can leave the cinema and feel the relief that we can make life wider, so maybe it’s a sort of aversion therapy to sit in the train for two hours… That’s two hours, not one hour and forty minutes.” (via THR)
Snowpiercer does not have a UK release date. You can buy Bong Joon-ho’s glorious creature feature The Host on Blu-ray for £5.75 at Amazon.co.uk.
