Snowpiercer is an upcoming sci-fi thriller film based on the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette. South Korean director Bong Joon-ho previously made The Host (2006).
The plot is kind of convoluted, but here are the basics: The year is AD 2031. The Earth is covered in snow after failed attempts to stop global warming create another ice age. A train is built to take the wealthy to safety, but it ends up being crammed full of the poor. The train is left to travel in an endless circle carrying the last of humanity.
Director and co-writer Bong Joon-ho said, "The story will be in a tone similar to Noah's Ark (from the Bible)... This train has enraptured me. I believe everyone has a fantasy about trains giving off chugs and puffs, and landscapes viewed from the window...
"What you can see from the window in this story, however, is only the world icebound, with minus 80 degrees outside. Survivors live in the train, but they can't stay in harmony even at a time of adversity...
"Each partition of the train represents a class. In the last partition of the train, people live wretched lives. The closer to the front they are, the more luxurious life gets... Le Transperceneige is going to be much more spectacular with all the trains and frozen scenery. But the spectacle is not what I really want to show. The mood and sentiment you can feel inside the train, the desperateness. The exterior should be only groundwork to show all that."
Chris Evans described it this way, ""It is kind of like an allegory for social classes and class warfare. The poorest people are in the back of the train and as you move forward in the train the classes rise. And there is a revolt, a revolution from the people in the back to the front of the train."
Check out some concept art from the film and click on the images to enlarge. They show three very different designs for the film.
Here are some pages from the graphic novel Le Transperceneige published in 1983 via the French site labdmemmerde.blogspot.com
Wikipedia Synopsis:
The film 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.
Director: Bong Joon-ho
Cast: Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell, Chris Evans, Song Kang-Ho, John Hurt, Octavia Spence and Ko Ah-Sung
Official Site: snowpiercer2013.interest.me
(Via io9)
What do you think of the illustrations?
@ Copyright 2013 SnowPiercer, Moho Films, Opus Pictures. All rights reserved
Interesting idea for a movie! This is the first I've heard of this film.
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