Snowpiercer: Netflix to air troubled Jennifer Connelly sci-fi series

Netflix has bought the international rights to Snowpiercer, a new TV series based on the most expensive Korean film ever made. 

The sci-fi drama stars Oscar-winner Jennifer Connelly and Tony-winning Hamilton star Daveed Diggs, and is co-produced by ITV and US network TNT.

It is a dystopian thriller set seven years after a second Ice Age, it follows a huge train which circles the globe holding some of the last survivors on Earth. As the train is split between social classes and many fear for the future of their world, tensions inevitably rise. 

It is based on Okja director Bong Joon-ho's 2013 Korean-English film of the same name, which starred Chris Evans and Tilda Swinton.

The $40m feature sparked controversy in the film industry when Harvey Weinstein – whose company owned the US distribution rights – ordered Bong to cut 20 minutes from the film and heavily rewrite it. The director refused, leading The Weinstein Company to screen it in only eight cinemas. A director's cut was released in 2014.

The TV adaptation has run into problems of its own, following the abrupt departure of its showrunner Josh Friedman.

The screenwriter, who left the project in January, has claimed he did not leave the show willingly and that he was fired  by TNT because they did not believe he would be "compliant".  The network cited created differences as the reason for his departure.

Friedman has since lashed out against his replacement, Graeme Manson, for not consulting him about the show.  "If you were to take over a show I'd originated and worked on for two years and didn't reach out to me before taking the job you're either an idiot, a coward, or a vichy motherf-----," Friedman wrote on Twitter.

Scott Derrickson, who directed the pilot episode, announced on Twitter last month that he would not be returning to the series, after being ordered to undertake extensive reshoots by Manson. According to Derrickson, Manson "has a radically different vision for the show".

The series will be available on Netflix in the UK and countries around the world, excluding the USA and China.