'Before The Devil Knows You're Dead' Scribe Kelly Masterson To Rewrite Bong Joon-Ho's 'Snow Piercer'

Somewhat underrated at the time, it's sad that it took the death of Sidney Lumet last year to cause his final film, "Before The Devil Knows You're Dead," to be re-appreciated. A seedy little Greek tragedy of a crime movie, with impeccable performances across the board, and shot like it was made by a hungry twenty-something, it deserved to stand with anything else in the Lumet canon. And perhaps because the film was overshadowed by others on release, writer Kelly Masterson, who made his debut with the project, hasn't yet managed to follow it up, although he's had a number of projects in development, including the Tobey Maguire thriller "Good People," the Barry Levinson drama "Brother Jack" and "Stones," a potential AMC series produced by Scott Free, focusing on the diamond trade.

Fortunately, it seems like we'll finally be seeing Masterson's work on the big screen before too long, as he's just signed on to rewrite the script for a film that might be our most anticipated of 2013. Variety reports that the writer is going to be taking a pass at "Snow Piercer," the film that marks the English-language debut of acclaimed Korean helmer Bong Joon-Ho, director of "Memories of Murder," "The Host" and "Mother."

The film, an adaptation of French graphic novel "Le Transperceneige," is set in a post-apocalyptic ice age, on a train with no destination, where passengers are divided in carriages by class, and was originally penned by Joon-Ho and fellow Korean auteur Park Chan-Wook ("Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance," "Oldboy," the upcoming "Stoker"), with the two also producing together. Masterson will be performing a pre-production rewrite -- we imagine in part to make sure that the English-language dialogue is up to scratch.

If you've been paying attention, you'll know that there's been a flurry of activity in the last few days, with the exciting trio of Chris Evans, Jamie Bell and Tilda Swinton coming aboard the project, in addition to Joon-Ho's regular leading man Song Kang-Ho, and more cast members likely to be announced soon. This is one of the rare projects where everything seems to be lining up beautifully, and it can't get here soon enough. Filming starts in March, so we imagine it'll bow at Berlin or Cannes in 2013.