The war is over! The Weinstein Co. have denied Western audiences the ability to see Bong Joon-ho‘s Snowpiercer for far too long. The sci-fi film had its world premier in South Korea last summer, but now there’s a date in Summer 2014. According to Box Office Mojo, Snowpiercer will finally hit theaters on June 27th, 2014.
Our own Jesse Knight wrote a lengthy piece on how Harvey Weinstein intended to cut approximately 20 minutes from the final film for US release. In addition to the cuts, a voice over was going to be added to the film a la the recent Weinstein Co. release of The Grandmasters. Perhaps they just believed American audiences wouldn’t have the capacity to understand Snowpiercer in its original state.
Now after months of back and forth, Snowpiercer will be seen in theaters how it was originally intended. The only downside is that the film will now only see a limited release, since its wide release depended on Bong Joon-ho agreeing to previously discussed edits. Hopefully this means that the director’s cut will be available in this region once the film is released to home video as opposed to an edited version.
Snowpiercer has received rave reviews out of South Korea and more recently the Berlin Film Festival. It stars Chris Evans, Octavia Spencer, Jamie Bell, John Hurt, Tilda Swinton, and Alison Pill. Snowpiercer will release on June 27th, 2014.