Aaron Glenane.
Aaron Glenane is playing the last Australian on Earth – literally – in Snowpiercer, a futuristic action thriller which revolves around the survivors trapped inside a perpetually-moving, gigantic train seven years after the world has become a frozen wasteland.
Turner Broadcasting’s TNT commissioned the series adapted from South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho’s eponymous 2013 movie and Netflix secured the rights outside the US and China.
Co-produced by Tomorrow Studios, Turner’s Studio T, and Korea’s CJ Entertainment, the production is shooting in Toronto until January and stars Jennifer Connelly, Daveed Diggs, Mickey Sumner, Susan Park, Benjamin Haigh, Sasha Frolova, Katie McGuinness, Alison Wright, Annalise Basso and Sam Otto.
Glenane plays a character known as The Last Australian, a scrappy charmer from Perth with an intense desire to survive. The plot is said to raise questions about class warfare, social injustice, and the politics of survival.
Connelly is Melanie Cavill, a first class passenger who works as the Voice of the Train – responsible for making the daily announcements over its PA system. Hamilton star Diggs is Layton Well, a revolutionary fighter against the elites who inhabit the front of the train.
Scott Derrickson (Sinister, Doctor Strange) directed the pilot but quit after he was asked to do significant reshoots and was replaced by James Hawes (The Alienist, Black Mirror).
“Our showrunner Graeme Manson and James Hawes, the director overseeing the series, are world-class,” Glenane told IF today. “With the longer format of TV they’re really able to explore all cultures and classes on the train. We spend a lot more time exploring the world and characters of first, second and third class along with the people doing it tough in the tail section.
“Jennifer Connelly is a force to be reckoned and is unrelentingly unpredictable while Daveed Diggs is ridiculously charismatic and is bringing a strength, intelligence and vulnerability to Layton.”
This is his first international TV series after he starred in Picnic at Hanging Rock, Nash Edgerton’s Mr Inbetween, Rachel Griffiths’ Ride Like A Girl and Kriv Stenders’ Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan.