Bleak New Concept Art And Poster For Bong-Joon Ho’s Snowpiercer
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Director Bong Joon-ho has churned out nothing but fantastic movies over the past decade or so. His The Host is the best giant creature feature in recent memory, and Mother and Memories of Murder are both great crime thrillers. You can bet that any film he’s working on features prominently in my list of must sees, and his upcoming Snowpiercer is no exception. The fact that it skews towards the sci-fi side of things only serves to sweeten the deal.
The Weinstein Company will release Bong’s English language debut sometime this year (possibly this summer), and though we haven’t seen anything from the film, there’s now this cool, though bleak concept art to gawk at. You get the definite impression from these pictures that things in the world of Snowpiercer are far from sunshine and lollipops.
Based on the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige, Snowpiercer is set in 2031, after global climate change has iced over the planet, wiping out everything, save a handful of survivors endlessly circling on a train. Presumably that’s what we’re looking at in this picture.
Within these confines, a rigid class system has developed. You can see the contrast between the Haves, who have access to technology, education, and ample space…
…and the poor, very literally piled on top of each other in dank, cold, cramped quarters. As you can imagine, this situation doesn’t sit well with everyone involved, and resentment and revolution linger in the air.
In Snowpiercer Bong has put together a pretty stellar cast, one that includes, Chris Evans, Jamie Bell, Tilda Swinton, Song Kang-ho, John Hurt, Octavia Spencer, and Ewen Bremner, and Alison Pill. That’s just one more reason you’ll all want to see this.
Admittedly, I do have some worries about Bong working in a language other than native Korean. We’ve seen so many foreign filmmakers come to the US and churn out total garbage over the years that this is a natural fear. (This is a concern I also have for Bong’s countrymen, Kim Ji-woon and Park Chan-wook, both of whom release their first English speaking movies this year.) Still, I have faith in Bong as a director to get good performances out of his cast, Park is actually producing Snowpiercer, and thematically, the story is right up his alley. In the grand scheme of things, this is a minor concern.
There’s also this tease of a poster, which doesn’t tell us much that we don’t already know.
