Thawing-out Ice Station Zebra?!

You never know what they’ll decide to remake next! Christopher McQuarrie has announced he’s going to write and direct some kind of remake of the cold-war thriller Ice Station Zebra (1968). Directed by John Sturges (whose The Great Escape just hit blu-ray yesterday), Zebra starred Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Jim Brown and the great Patrick McGoohan on a nuclear submarine heading for the Arctic – not all is as it seems and somebody will stop at nothing to prevent the mission from succeeding. Ice Station Zebra was from a novel by Alistair MacLean (The Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare) and is believed to have been Howard Hughes’ favorite film, supposedly watching it over and over. It’s a talky one at times, but was presented in the 70mm Cinerama format and looks spectacular, building to an exciting climax – the one-sheet makes it look like the mother of all James Bond movies!

McQuarrie is famous for the screenplay of The Usual Suspects and recently directed Tom Cruise in Jack Reacher. His screenplay for Valkyrie shows he can definitely squeeze excitement out of a military setting. Little is known about how he’ll approach the remake, but odds are it will move to a contemporary timeframe. Could be a lot of fun – but Ice Station Zebra is definitely a product of its era – how it will translate into today’s environment is anybody’s guess, but it will definitely be interesting to follow how this develops.