Another day, another exciting piece of casting news to report concerning TNT’s Snowpiercer pilot.
Not even 24 hours have passed since we caught wind of Jennifer Connelly’s casting – the Oscar-winner has been set as Melanie Cavill, a first class passenger who works as the Voice of the Train – and it’s now been confirmed that Mickey Sumner (Frances Ha, Battle of the Sexes) has reserved her seat aboard TNT’s icy, post-apocalyptic thriller.
Based on Bong Joon-ho’s modern cult classic of the same name, the pilot will largely take place aboard the titular vessel as it hurtles through a barren wasteland in perpetuity. Climate engineering is to blame for the global catastrophe, and after a series of rogue experiments triggers a full-blown ice age, the remnants of humanity are forced to live out the remainder of their lives on the hulking train known as Snowpiercer. Their existence is governed by a dubious status quo, too, and it’s this class division – one which separates the haves from the have-nots – that served as the narrative crux fuelling Bong Joon-ho’s prescient drama.
Snowpiercer‘s hour-long drama, one that is being marshaled onto the small screen by Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson, will be cut from the same cloth. Casting is still underway ahead of the seemingly imminent production start, and we understand Mickey Sumner has now landed the role of Bess Till. Her character is described as so: “Thoughtful, empathetic and savvy, Bess is a brakeman, part of the train’s security force. She finds herself at the center of a mystery that rocks the train’s uneasy status quo.” Daveed Diggs, on the other hand, is attached to the part of Layton Well, a prisoner barely surviving the harsh conditions in the tail end of the train.
So far, TNT has only ordered Snowpiercer to pilot, but with an increasingly impressive cast list in tow, don’t be too surprised if (when?) the network hands out a full series order.
