“Snow Piercer,” the English-language debut of Korean auteur Bong Joon-Ho, got a pretty neat little boost last night when one of its previously-announced cast members, Octavia Spencer, only went and won herself a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in “The Help.” The award was widely expected, but nevertheless, having the actress on board can only help to raise the profile of the project.
Not that it necessarily needed it: the film, an adaptation of the French graphic novel “Le Transperceneige,” about a train carrying the only survivors of a post-apocalyptic future, already has an extremely promising cast on board with Chris Evans, Jamie Bell, Tilda Swinton, Song Kang-Ho and John Hurt all signed up alongside Spencer. And it just got some more good news this morning, with Variety reporting that Scottish actor Ewan Bremner has boarded the project.
Bremner broke through as Spud in “Trainspotting,” and has gone on to work frequently both in the U.K (on projects like “The Acid House” and “Snatch“), and in the U.S, on films at opposite ends of the spectrum as “Julien Donkey-Boy” and “Pearl Harbor,” while he’s also become something of a Woody Allen favorite, appearing in both “Match Point” and “You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger.” In Joon-Ho’s film, the actor will play a father who enlists the help of Evans’ character to rescue his kidnapped son.
It’s another great addition to the cast, and given that Joon-Ho is one of the most exciting filmakers in the world right now, that he’s co-written and is producing with fellow Korean director Park Chan-Wook (“Oldboy“), and that their script was worked over by Kelly Masterson (“Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead“), things couldn’t possibly look more promising. “Snow Piercer” goes before cameras in April, and will find theaters in 2013.
