On 18 January 2012 , Kelly Masterson was hired to rewrite the script before it went into production due to Bong seeing his screenplay work on '' Before the Devil Knows You 're Dead '' and being impressed with the tonality of darkness and acuity in the story . Bong and Masterson had originally envisioned a romantic story for the protagonist ; however they jettisoned that idea in subsequent drafts of the screenplay . On 8 October 2013 , at the Busan International Film Festival , Bong acknowledged the challenges in adapting such a story to fit the apparent constraints of cinema , to which had to omit certain scenes from the graphic novel , " ... I had to capture that long story in a two-hour film , so rather than cut out some scenes from the comic , I just rewrote the whole story to fit this time frame . " On 13 January 2012 , Chris Evans began negotiations to star in the film adaptation , and was later confirmed as the film 's male lead . On 17 January 2012 , Tilda Swinton and Jamie Bell were confirmed to be in talks to join the project . Swinton first met Bong at the Cannes Film Festival , where she was of the mind that she did not want to make any other films , a decision she takes after each film : " And that one ( and only ) condition in which I will make another film is that I will have some fun . So we started to play with the idea of what would amuse us about this . " Bong and Swinton experimented with voices , mannerisms and the general appearance of the character of Mason . On 18 January 2012 , John Hurt was confirmed to have been cast , with Hurt stating , " All the film crew refer to Bong , with great reverence , as ' Director Bong ' . I love the fact that I am working for Director Bong . " On 2 February 2012 , Octavia Spencer had joined the cast of Bong 's project in the role of a " passenger on the train who joins the revolt in order to save her son . " Ed Harris spoke of his love of Bong Joon-ho 's films and wanted to work with him , " I want to do this . I do n't care what he 's asking me to do because he 's a really great filmmaker . " On 27 February 2012 , Ewen Bremner had joined the cast of Bong 's film . On 3 April 2012 , Luke Pasqualino was confirmed to have joined the cast
Cannes Film Festival
2011 Cannes Film Festival
Snowpiercer