Snowpiercer TV Series Being Developed by Avatar 2’s Josh Friedman

Snowpiercer TV series being developed by Avatar 2 scriptwriter Josh Friedman

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bong Joon-ho’s critically-acclaimed 2013 sci-fi film Snowpiercer is on the express track to series television as screenwriter Josh Friedman — who co-wrote the forthcoming Avatar 2 with James Cameron — is adapting it for the small screen.

In itself an adaptation of Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette’s French graphic novel “Le Transperceneige,” Snowpiercer took place aboard a socially-stratified train which houses all that is left of the human race after an environmental cataclysm sends the Earth into a new Ice Age. Chris Evans led a group of lower class denizens, who serve as slave labor/cattle for the upper class, in a train-wide revolt which leads to an upheaval of power. 

Marty Adelstein’s Tomorrow Studios (“Last Man Standing,” “Aquarius,” “Teen Wolf”) has purchased rights to the potential series from Korea’s CJ Entertainment & Media, which also produced the feature.

“I couldn’t be more excited for the opportunity,” Friedman said. “Marty and Becky are the perfect partners to help me bring this world to TV. I’m a huge fan of director Bong’s films, especially ‘Snowpiercer.’ It’s great the way the best sci-fi is great — thoughtful, political, funny, scary and sly. And it’s on a train. A big f—ing train. What more could you want?”

“We are very excited to be working with Josh on this incredible story,” Adelstein said. “As such a prolific and innovative writer he is the ideal person to create a massive new world in this adaptation. This is an expansive, high-concept project and we are thrilled to be a part of reimagining it for television.”

Besides his upcoming work on James Cameron’s triptych of Avatar sequels, Friedman is best known as the co-writer of Steven Spielberg’s 2005 blockbuster War of the Worlds, not to mention writing in a blog post the infamous line “I want these motherf**king snakes off the motherf**king plane!” which wound up in the 2006 movie Snakes on a Plane due to popular demand. He also developed FOX’s short-lived “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” series. 

In an interesting footnote, this will not be the first series about a long, futuristic train, as NBC ran 9 episodes of the show Supertrain in 1979. Essentially a luxury “Love Boat” on tracks, the series was one of the biggest failures in TV history and nearly bankrupted the network.