Tomorrow Studios must have been very taken with Bong Joon-ho’s grim apocalyptic train ride of a film Snowpiercer, because they’re adapting it into a television series. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio has optioned the rights for the small screen, with Josh Friedman (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) attached to write the pilot.
Says Friedman, who’s also working on James Cameron’s Avatar 3:
I couldn’t be more excited for the opportunity. Marty [Adelstein] and Becky [Clements] 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?
Horror great Park Chan-wook, who produced the film, is also attached to the TV series as executive producer. No word on exact plot, however. While there’s a chance the studio could pick up where the movie left off, it’s more likely that Snowpiercer the TV show will focus on the day-in and day-out of the various social classes on the train, especially those eking out an existence in “the tail.” That kind of worldbuilding would lend itself incredibly well to the longer form of television—and you already have the timing built in with the train’s annual circumnavigation of the globe.
Our only requirement: Tilda Swinton must drop in for a cameo!
