I dubbed the summer of 2014 “The Summer of Good Sci-fi” because it gave us interesting blockbuster films that used science fiction in interesting and fun ways. These movies included X-Men: Days of Future Past, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Edge of Tomorrow, and the first Guardians of the Galaxy. But right in the middle of these releases was a little movie called Snowpiercer, which took a look at the post-apocalypse in a way we hadn’t seen before. Now, TNT has greenlit a pilot for a TV version, and have signed Doctor Strange‘s Scott Derrickson to direct, with Hamilton‘s Daveed Diggs and Jennifer Connelly to star.
Update 6/7/17: A few weeks after the first initial casting announcement, Derrickson revealed that Connelly will be appearing in the series as well.
Jennifer Connelly is starring in @Josh_Friedman's SNOWPIERCER pilot that I'm directing for TNT https://t.co/vlwCw1GCok
— N O S â‹Š Ɔ I á´š á´š ÆŽ á—¡ ⊥ ⊥ O Ɔ S (@scottderrickson) June 7, 2017
Connelly is known for her extraordinary feature work (cough especially Labyrinth cough) and rarely graces the small screen, so this should be a treat for her fans. According to Deadline, she’ll be playing Melanie Cavill, a First Class passenger who works as the Voice of the Train. Unlike her fellow First Class passengers, Melanie is fascinated by the lower class… potentially putting her in line with Daveed Diggs’ character.
Diggs, who’s been a recurring character on both Black-ish and Netflix’s The Get Down, is best known for playing Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s gargantuan hit musical Hamilton. In Snowpiercer, he’ll play Layton Well, “a prisoner barely surviving the harsh conditions in the tail end of the train.” Described as a quiet thinker who spends his days sniffing industrial-waste-turned-drug Chronole and tending to his rats, Layton becomes a “reluctant” participant in the struggle that could upend the hierarchy of the train.
Interestingly, the character of Layton Well is a brand new creation for the television show, not appearing in either the Bong Joon-ho movie or the 1982 French graphic novel, Le Transperceneige. That said, we can assume he’ll likely be in the same mold as Curtis Everett, the character played by Chris Evans.
Derrickson, meanwhile, not only had a visually arresting hit in last year’s Doctor Strange but also will be directing the Hulu pilot for the much anticipated adaptation of Joe Hill’s graphic novel series Locke & Key. On top of directing the pilot for Snowpiercer, he will serve as executive producer.
What are you hoping to see from a Snowpiercer TV show? More train cars? Will Diggs sing in the show? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Images: Casterman/The Weinstein Company
Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. He writes the weekly look at weird or obscure films in Schlock & Awe. Follow him on Twitter!
