Snowpiercer marks Korean director Joon-ho Bong (The Host, Mother) making his English-language debut. The film is a dystopian sci-fi set on a ravaged Earth where the few human survivors are on the Snowpiercer, a train that travels around the globe.

However a revolution is brewing amongst the passengers inside.

The film has a great cast, although as you can see in the new character posters above and below, they’re not always completely recognisable. However the film follows Curtis (Chris Evans), Mason (Tilda Swinton), Gilliam (John Hurt), Wilford (Ed Harris), Namgoong Minsu (Kang-ho Song), Edgar (Jamie Bell), Tanya (Octavia Spencer), Andrew (Ewen Bremner) and Yona (Ah-sung Ko). The film hits US cinemas in May.

Click on the pics below for larger versions.

Snowpiercer is one of this year’s more intriguing films, with Korean director Joon-ho Bong (The Host, Mother) making his English-language debut. The film is a dystopian sci-fi set on a ravaged Earth where the few human survivors are on the Snowpiercer, a train that travels around the globe.

However a revolution  is brewing amongst the passengers inside.

Now we’re being introduced to the cast and characters thanks to a slew of passport images, which give us a look at Curtis (Chris Evans), Mason (Tilda Swinton), Gilliam (John Hurt), Wilford (Ed Harris), Namgoong Minsu (Kang-ho Song), Edgar (Jamie Bell), Tanya (Octavia Spencer), Andrew (Ewen Bremner), Yona (Ah-sung Ko), and director Joon-ho Bong.

The film hits US cinemas in May. Click on the pics below for larger versions.

Joon-ho Bong made a big splash with his South Korean movies The Host and Mother, and now he’s going English-language with Snowpiercer. The first art from the movie has now shown up via TheFilmStage, suggesting a dystopian sci-fi look to the film.

Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer, John Hurt, Kang-ho Song, and Ewen Bremner star in the movie, which is set in a world covered in snow and ice, with a group of characters stranded on a train dubbed the Snowpiercer, who all struggle to co-exist. Ewen Bremner will play a father who helps Chris Evans’ character find his kidnapped son.

Joon-ho Bong is directing from a script he co-wrote with Kelly Masterson (Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead), adapted from Benjamin Legrand and Jacuqes Lob’s graphic novel. Chan-wook Park produces. Take a look at the art above and below, and you can also listen to a sample of Marco Beltrami’s score.

Last week we learned that Shia LaBeouf may be having real sex on-screen in Lars Von Trier’s Nymphomaniac, and now THR reports that Jamie Bell and Connie Nielsen are joining him (in the movie, not in an on-screen threesome – although who knows!).

With the shoot starting tomorrow in Germany, other cast members have also been announced, including Nicolas Bro (Warhorse), Jesper Christensen (Quantum of Solice) Jens Albinus (Idiots), Shanti Roney (Together) and Severin von Hoensbroech (Ruhm). Nicole Kidman and Willem Dafoe have been linked to Nymphomaniac, but it hasn’t been confirmed whether they’ll actually appear in the movie.

Stellan Skarsgård and Charlotte Gainsbourg were previously attached to star in the movie, which has been promised in two versions. The first will be a softer version and the second will be a hardcore edition. The story centres on the erotic adventures of a woman called Joe (Gainsbourg) from her youth to the age of fifty, who is a self-diagnosed nymphomaniac. Skarsgård’s character finds her beaten in an alley and after taking her home to care for her, she tell him her story.

As for whether all these actors really will be shagging on-screen, producers have said much of it will be done through the use of body doubles and visual effects, although we’ll have to wait and see.

Jamie Bell has spent a long time just on the edge of breaking big, with everyone agreeing he’s a good actor, but he never gets the part that tips him into full-on movie stardom. His best chance was the title role in Tintin, but of course he wasn’t recognisable in that.

Now he’s taking the lead opposite Kate Mara (Brokeback Mountain) in a new ‘quirky’ rom com called Fighting Jacob,which Variety reports will be the feature directorial debut of Charlie McDowell. Bell will play the title character, Jacob ‘The Manic Maniac’ Rosenthal, an up and coming boxer who has extreme OCD, which is oddly enough the key to his success in the ring. Then he has a devastating break-up with Mara’s character, which forces him to re-evaluate his life and decide whether he can be truly happy being neurotic and a top fighter, but having his OCD affect his private life massively.

The movie is due to shoot this summer in LA.

For years Octavia Spencer was stealing scenes but never getting particularly good roles. Thanks to The Help she’s now in demand and the favourite for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Now THR reports that she’s joined the cast of Korean director Joon-ho Bong’s Snow Piercer.

The intriguing story is set in an alternate future, where a failed experiment to stop global warming results in a new Ice Age. The frigid climate has killed off all life on Earth, except for the passengers aboard a train dubbed Snow Piercer. A class system develops among the passengers on this train, which ignites a revolt. Octavia Spencer will portray a passenger who joins the uprising in order to save her son. Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell, John Hurt, and Kang-ho Song also star.

Joon-ho Bong is set to make his English-language debut with Snow Piercer, having found success with his excellent Korean movies, The Host and Mother. Chan-wook Park and Dooho Choi will produce. Production is set to begin in March.

Bong Joon-Ho’s English-language debut is getting more and more interesting with each cast announcement. Chris Evans is taking the lead role, with Tilda Swinton and Jamie Bell joining him soon after. Now they have some illustrious company in the form of John Hurt, according to The Telegraph.

Hurt mentioned the role in an interview, saying “All the film crew refer to him, with great reverence, as ‘Director Bong’. I love the fact that I am working for Director Bong.” It isn’t known what role Hurt will play.

The film is set in a world of ice and snow, and follows a group of people who get stuck on a train and can’t find a way to co-exist harmoniously. Bong Joon-ho, who’s best known for his Korean movies The Mother and The Host, will direct from his own screenplay, with Chan-wook Park (Oldboy) producing.

Last August it was reported that James McAvoy, Jamie Bell and Alan Cumming were set for key roles in an adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s novel, Filth. Now it appears Cumming may be out (possibly replaced with John Sessions), and Variety reports that Jim Broadbent, Eddie Marsan, Joanne Froggatt and Imogen Poots have come onboard.

It isn’t certain who the actors will play, but the book is about Bruce Robertson (McAvoy), a sex-obsessed, cocaine-addicted, bigoted Edinburgh cop who is supposed to be investigating a murder but gets sidetracked by his own hangups, mainly revolving around his rather extreme sex life.

The author will produce, while Jon S. Baird will direct. Baird apparently got the job behind the camera after impressing Irvine with his feature debut, Cass.

Snow Piercer is fast becoming a movie to keep an eye out for. At the weekend it was revealed Chris Evans had signed on to star in Joon-ho Bong’s English-language debut. Now Variety reports that the cast is about to get a jolt of excitement, with Tilda Swinton and Jamie Bell are in talks to join the movie.

The film is set in a world of ice and snow, and follows a group of people who get stuck on a train and can’t find a way to co-exist harmoniously. Unfortunately we don’t have character details, but it’s difficult to imagine Swinton, Bell and Evans won’t spark off one another whatever they’re saying.

Joon-ho Bong, who’s best known for his Korean movie The Mother and The Host, will direct from his own screenplay, with Chan-wook Park (Oldboy) producing.