TNT Orders a SNOWPIERCER Pilot

A year after Tomorrow Studios announced they had optioned the rights to Snowpiercer, the TV adaption has found a home. Turner-owned TNT has ordered a pilot with Josh Friedman penning the script.

Friedman’s extensive futuristic/sci-fi resume includes his creation of the Fox series, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, War of the Worlds, and some of the Avatar sequels. He will also serve as an executive producer and showrunner. Joining him is Tomorrow Studios’ Marty Adelstein (Aquarius, Prison Break, Teen Wolf, Last Man Standing) and Becky Clements (Aquarius, Last Man Standing), Bong Joon Ho and Dooho Choi.

In 2013, Bong Joon Ho wrote and directed Snowpiercer, which was his first English-language production. Based on the 1982 French graphic novel Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lobe, Benjamin Legrand and Jean-Marc Rochette, the film starred Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton, and Song Kang-ho. The futuristic thriller drama takes place seven years after the world has become a frozen wasteland with all its surviving inhabitants living on a super train that continuously circles the planet. Classes are separated; the wealthy at the front, the less fortunate in the back. Tired of living in squalor, Chris Evans’ character starts a rebellion heading to the front of the train. The film questions class warfare, social injustice, and the politics of survival.

It remains unclear what direction Friedman will take with the series. Sarah Aubrey, the EVP Original Programming at TNT, states that “Snowpiercer has one of the most original concepts to hit the screen in the last decade, and it’s one that offers numerous opportunities for deeper exploration in a series format.” And since the film posed several questions that were not answered, this opens the floor to the writers. They could continue where the movie ended (without any spoilers). They could retell the movie’s story, over a longer period of time to focus on the different cars the rebellion advances through. Or they can do a complete reboot of the graphic novel to include plots and characters left out of the 2013 film.

Snowpiercer is the third pilot TNT has ordered from Tomorrow Studios. Good Behavior, staring Michelle Dockery, debuted this month and currently the vampire thriller Let the Right One In, based on Swedish author John Ajvide’s bestselling novel will be co-produced between Studio T and Tomorrow Studios.

Whichever way the story goes, hopefully TNT will pick up the series for fans to see.

Check out the trailer for Snowpiercer and tell us what you think Friedman should do with the series in our comment section.