Director of the much delayed SNOWPIERCER, Bong Joon Ho, has faith that US audiences will see his original cut, as opposed to the distributor’s cut at the hands of Harvey Weinstein. News broke months ago about 20 minutes being cut from the US release, and a few weeks back it was announced that the Director’s cut was receiving better scores from test audiences. At the Mal del Plata Film Festival, Bong was able to discuss certain aspects of the upcoming release, and some future project ideas:
I stayed in New York for two weeks before coming here to Mar del Plata, mostly because of this matter. And the good news is that after all the speculation and comments about that 20-minute cut, and considering the original version that was released in Korea and France also will be released in Japan and Hong Kong, we have been talking a lot about keeping the original cut for the U.S. release, so what I can say is…have faith.
That’s much more promising to hear. Bong is currently serving as a judge at the film festival, and they are also screening a retrospective of his work, including a black and white version of MOTHER. Speaking of potential collaborations with Hollywood, Bong said:
After I made THE HOST, I had a U.S. agent that brought me scripts, but so far I haven’t found one I would really like to work with. I’ve directed five films, and I have written all of them. I have received some interesting Hollywood scripts, but when I read them I say, ‘What a good script! I will definitely go see this when it opens!’ I haven’t found a personal motivation to connect with any of them and turn them into films.
Bong is currently deciding between two projects, which he says will be…
a Korean film and not a Hollywood production.
SNOWPIERCER still has no US or UK release date confirmed. It stars Chris Evans, Song Kang Ho, Ed Harris, Tilda Swinton, Allison Pill, Octavia Spender, Jamie Bell, Ewen Bremner, and John Hurt.
Source: THR
