‘Fire And Ice’: Frank Frazetta And Ralph Bakshi’s Animated Fantasy Getting Live Action Remake

Fire and Ice, Frank Frazetta and Ralph Bakshi’s classic 1983 animated fantasy, is getting the remake treatment over at Sony Pictures.

Although the studio is currently embroiled in a pretty nasty scandal involving hacked company info and leaked emails, the powers that be are still interested in crafting major motion pictures. In fact, producers intend to bring Fire and Ice back to the big screen with a little help from Machete director Robert Rodriguez.

While fans might scoff at the idea of someone meddling with Frank Frazetta and Ralph Bakshi’s classic, the studio and the filmmaker are reportedly planning a live action remake of Fire and Ice. According to Variety, Rodriguez will direct the flick, while Bold Films’ Gary Michael Walters, Matthew Rhodes, and Michel Litvak will produce.

Rodriguez told Deadline all about his plans for Fire and Ice.

“”Sin City reflected Miller’s two-dimensional plane and had an abstract very graphic quality to it, while Frazetta’s is this heightened reality, or rather layers of unreality that create a dream like reality you can get lost in, with an adventure film right out of his imagination. If we get the script in the next couple months, by the end of spring or start of summer, we start preproduction.”

Unfortunately for those who wouldn’t mind seeing Rodriguez tackle Frazett and Bakshi’s Fire and Ice, there isn’t a release date for the project as of this writing. In fact, details about the remake are few and far between at the moment. In other words, there’s a chance this picture won’t make it past the development stage.

This isn’t the first time Robert Rodriguez has expressed interest in remaking a classic fantasy flick. A few years ago, the Sin City co-director started kicking around a reboot of Red Sonja, which would have featured former Charmed star Rose McGowan in the lead role. The filmmaker even released a series of teaser posters to spread the good word.

Sadly — or fortunately, depending on your opinion of Robert Rodriguez and Rose McGowan — Red Sonja ultimately fell through. According to Reelz, the film’s future was reportedly hinged on the success of the director Marcus Nispel’s 2011 Conan the Barbarian, a reboot that failed to find its footing at the box office.

“If I kept the project myself, we could’ve just made it, but it belonged to another company that had financing problems… They’re actually waiting until they make the Conan movie before they do that (Red Sonja) — to see how that works for them,” Rodriguez explained.

What do you think about the proposed live action remake of Fire and Ice? Will Frank Frazetta and Ralph Bakshi fans will approve of the project?

[Lead image via Museum Syndicate]