Bong Joon-Ho’s (The Host) sci-fi thriller Snow Piercer is quickly becoming one of my most anticipated projects heading into production. The premise is beyond cool (a group of train passengers learn to co-exist in a new ice age), the cast is excellent (Tilda Swinton, Chris Evans, Jamie Bell, and John Hurt), and now Joon-Ho is adding another Oscar-nominee to his roster. Heat Vision reports that Octavia Spencer, who is the current frontrunner in the Oscar race for Best Supporting Actress thanks to her work in The Help, has joined the cast of Snow Piercer.

Furthermore, Heat Vision’s report adds a few more intriguing details regarding the film’s premise. The Ice Age setting is a result of a failed experiment to stop global warming that killed off all life on the planet except for the inhabitants of a train called Snow Piercer. The train travels the globe and is powered by “a sacred perpetual-motion engine.” The conflict in the story comes from a revolution that brews as a result of the class system that forms on the train, and Spencer will play a passenger who joins the revolt in order to save her son. In short, Snow Piercer sounds fantastic and Spencer makes a much-welcomed addition to the cast.