Tilda Swinton & Jamie Bell In Talks To Join Bong Joon-Ho's 'Snow Piercer' With Star Chris Evans

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by Edward Davis
January 17, 2012 6:29 PM
8 Comments

You may not know who filmmaker Bong Joon-ho is, but clearly, the world of discerning A-list actors do. And perhaps that milieu have rather discerning taste as well. The South Korean auteur, known for thrilling international works like "The Host" and the police procedural "Memories of Murder" (which many of us feel is superior to "Zodiac"), is mounting his first English-language feature, and so far a little guy named Chris Evans is pegged to lead the picture.

Two more actors – both from across the pond – are in talks to join Bong's sci-fi genre film "Snow Piercer": Tilda Swinton and Jamie Bell. Swinton is coming off her astounding turn in "We Need To Talk About Kevin," while Bell has recently finished promoting his motion-capture effort, "The Adventures of Tintin."

Set in a post-apocalyptic winter world, "Snow Piercer" takes place on board a train full of survivors, divided by class and battling to stay alive, and is based on the French graphic novel "Le Transperceneige," created by author Jacques Lob. No word on who Swinton or Bell would play, but presumably, like Evans, they're all passengers on this train. It'll be interesting to see how this single-setting film plays, especially considering we just had a train-centric genre picture in "Source Code" last year.

Bong Joon-ho has also directed rather excellent works like the amazing 2009 thriller "Mother," the segment "Shaking Tokyo" in the omnibus picture "Tokyo!" and his debut, "Barking Dogs Never Bite." There's a reason top-shelf English and American talent want to work with him: he's vastly talented and his films are strikingly original, mixing dark comedy with grizzly murders, pointed investigations and or in the case of "The Host," revitalizing the monster movie. Production is expected to begin in March, so perhaps Cannes 2013 if we're lucky?

It's good to know Evans and Bell are closeted cinephiles (Swinton obviously is, natch). If you've never seen these aforementioned films, run, don't walk to your newest Netflix queue. [Variety]

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More: Jamie Bell, Tilda Swinton, Joon-ho Bong, Chris Evans, Snowpiercer

8 Comments

| Reply
e34 | January 18, 2012 4:00 PMReply

Zodiac > Memories of Murder, personally. They're actually very different movies though, despite the obvious similarities.
bonzob | January 18, 2012 6:10 AMReply

Zodiac was my favorite film of 2007. Memories of Murder is better.

On an unrelated note, could you maybe not condescend your readership quite so much, Playlist? Some of us are actually aware of Bong Joon-Ho, too.
BEF | January 18, 2012 9:52 AM

Agreed. Share your man crush on Boon-Ho WITH US like you do with Refn.
MATT | January 17, 2012 10:33 PMReply

"Memories of Murder" is a great film.
BEF | January 17, 2012 10:11 PMReply

Definitely the film I am most looking forward to. Color me excited: red.
Evan | January 17, 2012 7:41 PMReply

This movie is going to be awesome!!! Tilda is awesome and Bell and Evans aren't too shabby.
t | January 17, 2012 6:44 PMReply

""Memories of Murder" (which many of us feel its superior to "Zodiac")" LOL no. Also, spellcheck...
Cde. | January 18, 2012 1:22 AM

I feel that it's superior to Zodiac. It's certainly not worse.