In order to ramp up its international productions, Netflix is teaming up with renowned filmmaker J.A. Bayona to produce a movie based on real-life events called Society of the Snow. The film will be entirely in Spanish.
The film will be directed by J.A. Bayona himself, whose credits include The Orphanage, A Monster Calls and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom as well as the upcoming Lord of the Rings series from Amazon. The movie is set to be written by Bayona, Bernat Vilaplana, Jaime Marques and Nicolás Casariego.
Director J. A. Bayona commented on the development of this film:
“It was during the documentation process for The Impossible that I discovered Society of the Snow, Pablo Vierci’s fascinating chronicle about the tragedy of the Andes. More than 10 years later, my fascination for the novel remains intact and I am happy to face the challenge that lies ahead: To tell one of the most remembered events of the 20th century, with all the complexity that implies a story that gives so much relevance to the survivors as well as to those who never returned from the mountains. I also face it in Spanish, a language that I excitedly return to after 14 years without filming in my own language, and with a team of young Uruguayan and Argentine actors, whom I’m totally thrilled with.”
Producers include Belén Atienza (The Impossible, The Orphanage) and Sandra Hermida (The Impossible, A Monster Calls). Here’s everything else we know about Netflix’s Society of the Snow:
What’s the story behind Society of the Snow?
Society of the Snow (La Sociedad de la Nieve) will tell the story of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which in 1972 was chartered to fly a rugby team to Chile and catastrophically crashed on a glacier in the heart of the Andes. Only 29 of the 45 passengers survived the crash and, finding themselves in one of the world’s toughest environments, they were forced to resort to extreme measures — including cannibalism — to stay alive.
The film is based on the book La sociedad de la nieve by Pablo Vierci.
Who is cast in Society of the Snow?
The ensemble cast of Netflix’s Society of the Snow includes Enzo Vogrincic Roldán, Matías Recalt, Agustín Pardella, Tomas Wolf, Diego Ariel Vegezzi, Esteban Kukuriczka, Francisco Romero, Rafael Federman, Felipe González Otaño, Agustín Della Corte, Valentino Alonso, Simón Hempe, Fernando Contigiani García, Benjamín Segura and Jerónimo Bosia.
What’s the production status of Society of the Snow?
As of January 2022, Netflix’s Society of the Snow is in active development and pre-production.
Filming for Netflix’s Society of the Snow will take place in the Sierra Nevada (Andalucía, Spain), in Montevideo (Uruguay) and in various locations in the Andes (both in Chile and Argentina), including El Valle de las Lágrimas, where the events actually took place.
Producers Atienza and Hermida said the following about the upcoming shoot:
“After a few years working on the project, we are very terribly excited to start filming Society of the Snow. We want to thank Netflix for their determined support of this project, which will be shot entirely in Spanish, and also thank the survivors and the families of those who perished in the tragedy of the Andes, for their enormous generosity in sharing their story with us.”
What’s the Netflix release date for Society of the Snow?
Netflix hasn’t announced a release date for Society of the Snow, but given a likely 2022 production start, we should probably expect a release in 2023.