In the winter of 2005 , Bong found Jean-Marc Rochette 's French graphic novel series '' Le Transperceneige '' at a graphic novel shop near Hongik University and finished reading the entire series while standing in front of the bookshelf where he found it . He was fascinated by ideas of people struggling on the train for survival , and how every section is classified in social stratification . Bong showed the series to his friends , fellow director Park Chan-wook and producer Lee Tae-hun , who loved it as well . Although Bong praised the original graphic novel , he soon realized that a film like '' Snowpiercer '' needed an original take . Bong stated , " ... I had to come up with a completely new story and new characters in order to create a new , dynamic Snowpiercer that was packed with cinematic exhilaration . " In the following year , Park 's production company Moho Film acquired the copyrights to the original story of '' Snowpiercer '' for Bong , and in 2007 the copyrights to the story extended . The first draft of the screenplay for Snowpiercer was completed on 15 September 2010 , and in December , the second draft of screenplay was completed and modified . On 4 October 2010 , Bong , whilst at the Vancouver International Film Festival , had initially entertained the idea of shooting the film in Canada due to it having " ... a great infrastructure for filmmaking , and Korean expatriates are involved in the film industry a lot . " Bong wanted a film studio with a 75 - to 100-meter-long space to fill with four train cars connected together . The production team travelled to Europe for studio scouting and ended up with two studio choices : Barrandov Studios in Czech Republic and Korda Studios in Hungary . In August 2011 , a Czech producer hired by the production team began negotiations with two film studios for availability ; Barrandov Studios was eventually chosen as the film studio and production service provider of '' Snowpiercer ''
Vancouver International Film Festival
Vancouver International Film Festival
Snowpiercer