‘Ice on Fire’ a deeply conventional climate crisis docu

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‘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

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