The saga of the tortured release of Bong Joon-Ho’s 2013 sci-fi Snowpiercer threatened to overshadow how brilliant it was (but didn’t, obviously, because the film’s amazing). Now, it looks like the story of the world’s final survivors living on a class-based train travelling through the frozen world will live on in a new form.
THR reports that Snowpiercer, which starred Chris Evans, Song Kang-Ho, Tilda Swinton, Ko Ah-Sung, John Hurt, Octavia Spencer, Jamie Bell, Ed Harris is being adapted for TV by The Sarah Connor Chronicles‘ Josh Friedman and Tomorrow Studios. Bong and his producers on the movie Park Chan-Wook and Dooho Choi are attached as executive producers, along with Tomorrow Studios’ Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements.
“I couldn’t be more excited for the opportunity,” said Friedman. “Marty and Becky are the perfect partners to help me bring this world to TV. I’m a huge fan of director Bong’s films, especially Snowpiercer. It’s great the way the best sci-fi is great — thoughtful, political, funny, scary and sly. And it’s on a train. A big f—ing train. What more could you want?”
“We are very excited to be working with Josh on this incredible story,” said Adelstein. “As such a prolific and innovative writer he is the ideal person to create a massive new world in this adaptation. This is an expansive, high-concept project and we are thrilled to be a part of reimagining it for television.”
The film tumbled into a release struggle when the Weinsteins’ fell out with Bong over the final cut. With the filmmaker refusing to budge on running time or tone, the Weinsteins sat on the movie for months before finally giving it a limited release. And it’s STILL not bloody come out here in the UK.
While the Snowpiercer TV series doesn’t currently have a network, there’s sadly a good chance that it will hit the UK before the film does.
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