It’s four years since Robert Rodriguez announced he was looking to mount a live-action remake of ‘80s animated adventure Fire And Ice. He’s been busy on other things since then, but has now signed a deal to direct the film for Sony.
Fire And Ice, which will draw from Frank Frazetta’s artwork in a similar – though perhaps not as direct – way to** Sin City** and Frank Miller, adapts the story from the Ralph Bakshi animation. It’s all launched when evil type Nekron sends glaciers out that destroy most of the surrounding strongholds. Humanity retreats to Fire Keep, ruled by the benevolent King Jarol. But when his daughter is kidnapped, a young warrior must venture out to save her.
“I’m a lifelong Frazetta fan who was inspired by his work, like so many people,” Rodriguez tells Deadline. “It was my dream to work with him, and the first thing I did when I got to Hollywood was call him. I got him to do a From Dusk Till Dawn poster for me, and I got to work with him and know him over the years. When I’d visit him at his museum and see his artwork, I tried to figure what would the ultimate Frazetta movie be. I remembered the movie he did, Fire And Ice, back when I was a kid. I thought, ‘I wish they could have made it look more like the paintings, but I guess they’d have had to paint each frame.’ Now, you could do that. You could make it look like you were in his imagination. He didn’t use models, he didn’t use swipes. He painted purely from his imagination, and the characters and the colours made you feel like you were in a dream, and a fully realised and completely imagined world. It was so visual and arresting.”
While he was developing the project independently with Bold Films, Rodriguez decided it would work better on a bigger scale with studio backing, and Michael De Luca hatched the Sony deal. They’re both hoping this turns into a fantasy franchise for the studio.