In an icy post-apocalyptic world, the only survivors live on a train powered by snow that it funnels in through its front, or something. In fact, I hear it runs on “a perpetual motion engine.” Perhaps, like the shark in Annie Hall, it needs to keep moving forward or it dies.
We love high-concept sci-fi here at W&P… but WAIT, the high concept gets even higher, and conceptier. There’s some kind of carriage-based class system, and when a sooty Chris Evans – stuck at the back of the train – becomes unhappy with his lot he decides to battle through to first class. So: snowy Marxist allegory fun, starring Tilda Swinton, Chris Evans and Octavia Spencer and directed by Bong Joon-Ho (the guy who did The Host – the Korean monster movie, not the Twilight alien movie thing).
Could this work? Ask the audiences in Korea and France, where it’s been out for a while. Elsewhere it’s being cut from 120 minutes to 100 because Harvey Weinstein isn’t just content with chopping up The Grandmaster–he won’t rest until he’s hacked apart every crossover Asian movie he can get his scissors to. HE WILL NOT REST. –AJP
Whitlock&Pope 