(MENAFN- Arab Times) 
Ice on Fire
'Amazing Maurice' to be turned into animated film
Twelve
years ago, Leonardo DiCaprio teamed up with Leila Conners to blast an
environmental wake-up call to the world with 'The 11th Hour', warning of the
dire consequences of unchecked climate change. More than a decade later, the
political leaders most able to do something continue to ignore the issue, but
while the cataclysmic effects of global warming become ever clearer, scientists
and significant swathes of the public are trying to make a difference. That's
the focus of 'Ice on Fire', a deeply conventional though attractive documentary
designed to reinforce just how bad things are getting while offering hope by
concentrating on realistic proposals that can reign in climate change and even
reverse its effects. Premiering at Cannes in advance of its June 11 launch on
HBO, the film will likely garner a decent viewership via the network's
streaming platforms.
Where
'The 11th Hour' sought to frighten audiences into action by showing the
consequences of doing nothing, 'Ice on Fire' takes a different tack, relying
heavily on predictably beautiful drone shots of pristine landscapes to remind
us what we have to lose, interspersed with scientists and activists talking
about what can be done to preserve our planet. Occasionally DiCaprio's voice is
heard reinforcing points in the manner of a sententious schoolmaster lecturing
children, but fortunately these interjections are sporadic, notwithstanding the
obvious importance of a Leonardine presence to boost interest. Overall the
documentary is rather too predictably structured, raising the alarm, then
offering a solution, and then repeating the formula, though Conners and the
producers make the correct calculation that dire warnings without a corrective
course of action lead to hopelessness rather than vital social and political
engagement.
Naturally
the movie is aware of climate change deniers with their disturbing agendas, and
while the filmmakers avoid too much anti-Trumpian commentary, their privileging
of science, via 'impartial experts' freezes out any misguided uncertainty. From
the Rocky Mountains to the Arctic ice sheets, from the Costa Rican rainforests
to the windswept Orkney Islands, the emphasis is first on data collection,
baldly presenting the facts of carbon and methane accumulation in the environment
and their mind-boggling toxicity. The solution is a two-pronged approach,
consisting of switching to renewable energy combined with 'drawdown', the act
of pulling carbon out of the environment.
Process
Scientists and entrepreneurs
discuss wind turbines, solar farms and tidal energy while others explain the
process of carbon sequestration and its potential for creating far more jobs
than the fossil fuel industry, including urban farming as well as the
heightened cultivation of 'restorative species' like oysters and especially
seaweed and kelp. Time after time, experts talk of achievable goals,
emphasizing that capitalism is not anathema to environmental action since going
green will be ever more profitable. There's only one massive problem for which
the documentary doesn't suggest a comprehensive solution, and that's stored
methane, acknowledged as posing an even more drastic risk of accelerated
climate disruption. But the implication is that the cascading benefits of all
these methods will do the trick if we act now: 'Is it game over or game on?'
queries DiCaprio in one of the more simplistic lines.
'Ice on Fire' looks exactly as
expected, full of grandiose drone shots of some of the globe's most vulnerable
spots — DP (and co-producer) Harun Mehmedinovic previously worked on 'BBC
Earth' and was clearly influenced by the groundbreaking series. Though
operating with an eye for large-scale images, the producers were surely
cognizant that most audiences are accustomed to watching this sort of footage
on home screens of varying sizes.
Also:
LOS ANGELES: Terry
Pratchett's 'The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents' is set to
become the first of the much-loved author's books to be adapted as an animated
movie. The Discworld novel, the 28th in the series and the first for children,
has been optioned by Germany-based Ulysses Filmproduktion, which will make
the film alongside Ireland's Cantilever Media. US writer Terry Rossio,
whose extensive credits include 'Shrek', 'Aladdin' and 'Pirates of the
Caribbean' has written the screenplay.
Carter Goodrich, who worked on
'Ratatouille' and 'Brave', is on board for character design. Toby Genkel
('Ooops! Noah Is Gone…') is attached to direct the EUR15 million ($17
million) movie.
Pratchett's
book, published by Doubleday in 2001, is a reworking of the classic tale of the
Pied Piper of Hamelin. It follows Maurice, a streetwise cat, who has the
perfect money-making scam. He finds a dumb-looking kid who plays a pipe and has
his very own horde of rats, who are strangely literate. When Maurice and the
rodents reach the stricken town of Bad Blintz, they discover that something
very bad is waiting in the cellars. (RTRS)
Cantilever Media CEO Andrew
Baker, who produced Netflix's 'Robozuna', told Variety that the project has
been in development for several years after Ulysses optioned the book. The team
is now looking to raise the last part of the financing and, with a script and
character designs in hand, is ready to go into production at the end of the
year. The plan is for the comedy-action-adventure movie to be ready for release
in early 2022. (RTRS)
By Jay Weissberg
MENAFN1806201900960000ID1098650806
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