Snowpiercer TV series directed by Scott Derrickson casts Hamilton alumni Daveed Diggs

A reinterpretation of Bong Joo-ho's film

Upon release, Snowpiercer — which remains the most expensive Korean production of all time — gained widely positive reviews but was a somewhat muted box-office success.

Directed by The Host’s Bong Joon-ho, the film was an adaptation of the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige, the story centring on a never-stopping train riddled with social injustice and class warfare.

The American cable channel TNT has since ordered an entire TV series based on the source material, with Doctor Strange’s Scott Derrickson directing.

Hamilton alumni Daveed Diggs will lead the series, playing Layton Well, described as “a prisoner barely surviving the harsh conditions in the tail end of the train. A quiet thinker who spends his days sniffing the industrial-waste-turned-drug Chronole and tending to his cage full of rats, Layton becomes a reluctant participant in a struggle that could upend life on the train.”

Derrickson — along with Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles writer Josh Friedman — will act as executive producers. Bong Joo-ho returns as co-producer of the pilot episode, alongside Dooho Choi, and Oldboy’s Chan-wook Park.

The official synopses reads: “Snowpiercer is a futuristic thriller set seven years after the world has become a frozen wasteland, and the remnants of humanity inhabit a gigantic, perpetually moving train that circles the globe. Class warfare, social injustice and the politics of survival are questioned in this riveting television adaptation.”

The 2013 film starred Chris Evans, Song Kang-ho, Tilda Swinton, Octavia Spencer, Jamie Bell, Ed Harris, and John Hurt. A release date for the upcoming series has not been announced.