Genre: Science Fiction/Animated.
Studio:
Twentieth Century Fox.
Production Company:
Fox Animation.
Project Phase: Greenlighted.
Who's Voices Are In It:
Matt Damon (Cale); Bill Pullman (Joe Korso); Drew Barrymore; Nathan Lane; Hank Azaria; Lena Olin; Jim Breuer;
Janeane Garofalo.
Who's Making It:
Don Bluth, Gary Goldman (Director); Ben Edlund (Screenwriter); Brian Rosen (Producer);
Bob Birchard (Editor).
Premise: After Earth is decimated by an alien invasion, a young boy searches across the galaxy for relics needed to save his people from annihilation.
Release Date: November 19, 1999.
Comments: A top secret project being designed by Fox's newly-born animation studio that was first brought to our attention by Jon Reeves, he of the mighty Internet Movie Database. Planet Ice is already one year into its production and, according to Chris Meledandri, president of Fox Family Films, "couldn't be more different in subject matter and tone," from Fox's first foray into animation, Anastasia.
When James Cameron's Titanic feature was in development back in '95 its working title was 'Planet Ice'. Now whether or not this was a mistake made by someone inside Fox confusing the two projects, or if indeed early in Titanic's formative stages it was used is uncertain. Details have been extremely lacking save for one paragraph in an older SciFox:
"Set in the future, after Earth has been destroyed by a devastating alien attack, Planet Ice is the story of an orphaned young man who suddenly finds himself on an incredible adventure after he is given a mysterious treasure map. As he travels the far reaches of this dangerous and unknown galaxy, he must find the strength within himself to survive the perilous journey. He will also face his greatest challenge as he struggles to unlock the secret of Hydra, the legendary planet which is believed to hold a hidden treasure that could ultimately save mankind."
Rumors: Unknown.
Scoop Feedback:
January - September 9, 1997... Jon Reeves first informs CA of the existance of this film, the second production for Fox's animation studio. [Credit to Jon Reeves.]
Brent Lynch narrows down the film's release date window to late 1998. The storyline is somewhat similar to the Disney project called Treasure Planet in development. [Thanks to Brent Lynch.]
October 12, 1997... Planet Ice's director, Art Vitello, supervised episodes of television's The Real Ghostbusters and The Tick animated series. Tick fans will easily recall Edlund, PI's writer, as the creator of both the comic book and animated Tick series. A teaser should appear with Anastasia next month. [Information supplied by Brent Lynch; special thanks to all 'Tick' fans who caught the Edlund/Tick slip-up!]
November 25, 1997... Matt Damon, Bill Pullman and Drew Barrymore will headline the voices being heard in the film. Damon will voice a 19-year-old human named Cale who has to scour the galaxy for treasures while Pullman will portray the leader of a gang of shifty spacers helping Cale find the locations for the mysterious 'Planet Ice'. [Sent in by Todd Dupler and 'seegeye'.]
December 23, 1997... We've been told Bill Pullman is out. According to this scooper, the producers want the movie to have a wider appeal, so now the leader of the 'space pirates' (the character that Pullman was intended to play) is an African-American female. There's been no decision on who'll now play the character. Also, expect a PG or PG-13 rating the scooper says. Right now there's extensive computer graphics work being done on the vehicles and backgrounds for the show. [Sent in by 'FoxSpy'.]
December 29, 1997... Blue Sky/VIFX (the vfx company owned by Fox) has been working on Planet Ice and had some cool-looking posters for it at SIGGRAPH in Los Angeles back in August, our man tells us. He also reports that Ice is going to have "an incredible amount of computer graphics work" -- even going so far as to say that most scenes will have more CGI than traditional animation! [Reported by 'Dang'.]
May 5, 1998... A very Jules Verne-inspired design sketch for Fox's Planet Ice, sent by the same person who
also gave it to Dark Horizons. Based on the feel and look of this one picture, there may be some competition between
this project and Disney's Vernesian work-in-progress, Atlantis. [Credit anonymous.]
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August 18, 1998... Don Bluth and Gary Goldman are officially announced as the new directors for Planet Ice. [Submitted by Eric Lurio, 'chuckd21'.]