Weinstein Company Picks Up Bong Joon-Ho’s Futuristic Ice Age Thriller ‘Snowpiercer’

Ten minutes of AFM footage was enough for the Weinstein Company to scoop up English-speaking rights (including U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa) to South Korean Bong Joon-ho’s dystopian “Snowpiercer,” an action thriller starring Chris Evans.

“Snowpiercer” is set in a futuristic Ice Age–after a failed experiment to stop global warming– where the 1 % run what’s left of the world: a single train with no destination, The Snowpiercer. Its inhabitants are divided by class; the lower-class passengers in one of the last cars stage an uprising, moving car by car up to the front of the train, where the oppressive rich and powerful ride.

The globalized nature of the film production is notable for combining a local South Korean studio and producers with American stars and crew. Aside from Evans, the film also stars Ed Harris, John Hurt, Song Kang-ho, Ko A-sung, Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell, Allison Pill, Octavia Spencer and Ewen Bremner.

Bong Joon-ho (“The Host,” “Memories of Murder”) based the script on the French graphic novel “Le Transperceneige.”

The film is slated for a 2013 release.