Robert Rodriguez Planning Live Action FIRE AND ICE Feature

Rodriguez’s dream project finally moving forward…

Deadline has learned that Sony Pictures and Robert Rodriguez have set in motion plans for a live-action take on the 1983 animated film ‘Fire and Ice,’ with an eye towards kick-starting a fantasy adventure franchise.

In original film, a collaboration between legendary illustrator Frank Frazetta and animation director Ralph Bakshi (‘Fritz The Cat,’ ‘The Lord of the Rings’), a small village is destroyed by a surging glacier, which serves as the deadly domain for the evil Ice Lord, Nekron. The only survivor is a young warrior, Larn, who vows vengeance. When Nekron’s sub-human ape-like creatures kidnap the daughter of a nearby King, Larn sets out on a search for her, resulting in a tense battle between good and evil.

“I’m a lifelong Frazetta fan who was inspired by his work, like so many people,” Rodriguez told 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 realized and completely imagined world. It was so visual and arresting.”