As much as I love Parasite — and I really do love it — Snowpiercer is probably my favourite Bong Joon-Ho film. The film, which was based on the 1982 French graphic novel, ‘Le Transperceneige’ is set in a post-apocalyptic future, where the few lucky enough to survive the global catastrophe, now live onboard a constantly moving train that travels around the globe. In it, a new class system emerges and the poor and oppressed who live at the tail end, devise a plan to rise up against the oppressors.
In about a week’s time, Netflix will be dropping a brand new Snowpiercer series adapted and expanded from Bong Joon-Ho’s 2013 film. Daveed Diggs and Jennifer Connelly are set to star alongside Mickey Sumner, Annalise Basso, Sasha Frolova, Alison Wright, among many others. The TNT series (it’s distributed by Netflix outside of the US) faced numerous production issues since its announcement in 2015. Creators and directors were reshuffled due to creative differences with TNT. It’s been a huge mess, really, with the original pilot director Scott Derrickson (Doctor Strange)
The 72-page Snowpiercer TV pilot script by [Josh Friedman] is the best I’ve ever read. The feature-length pilot I made from that script may be my best work. The new showrunner [Graeme Manson] has a radically different vision for the show. I am forgoing my option to direct the extreme reshoots.
All of it sounds like a hot mess. But anyway, Netflix just dropped the full-length trailer for the upcoming series. Check it out:
The trailer simply isn’t enticing. What makes Bong Joon-Ho’s film so enrapturing, isn’t just the story, it’s the style and tone. The film, starring Chris Evans, is dark, dirty, sometimes eccentric, always thrilling and has dark humour. Going off the trailer alone, the series looks overly polished. It lacks the grit and guts of the film. I will still be checking it out, though, and hopefully, the series proves me wrong.
