Fireframe Studios Boards ‘The Ice’

Finland’s Fireframe Studios has boarded upcoming Arctic thriller “The Ice.”

Developed in collaboration with Nordisk Film Production, it’s based on the successful novel by Norwegian writer John Kåre Raake, also behind movies “The Wave” and “The Quake,” and series “The Fortress.”

Filming is scheduled for next year.

The story plays out at one of Earth’s most inhospitable places, the North Pole, with the team teasing “The Ice” as a “highlight for thrill-seeking audience, combining high concept with tense political conflicts.” As well as “ice-cold thrills and warm human drama.”

“It’s an ideal co-production for Fireframe. Much of the film relies on virtual production, which is our specialty,” said Mikko Kodisoja, Fireframe’s founder and CEO. Kodisoja is one of the founders of Finnish mobile game development company Supercell.

“By getting involved from the get-go, we leverage real-time technologies to explore creative possibilities and to problem-solve at speed, whether it’s blocking out scenes with virtual cameras or solving technical challenges pre-shoot. As a result, we pre-empt issues before they arise and reduce the uncertainties that can often arise in traditional filmmaking.”

“The North Pole – how are you going to film that?! It obviously requires a big budget, so virtual production is the best option. We can shoot a high percentage of these scenes in our studio,” added COO Sampo Kallunki.

In the meantime, Fireframe – behind “A Rare Grand Alignment” by Cinqué Lee, now readying for November’s AFM and starring “Jojo Rabbit’s” Roman Griffin Davis – will also take on underwater scenes and unleash the “Kraken,” another Nordisk Film production sold by TrustNordisk.

The monster movie focuses on a marine biologist doing research on a fish farm in a rural community located by the fjord. Soon, she encounters several strange occurrences, along with brutal deaths of two teenagers. Pål Øie (“The Tunnel”) directs.

“Everyone can build a studio – the secret is how you run it. Most use ready-made tools, which can often lead to ‘clunky’ results. We have built everything from scratch and we have people who have been dealing with LED projections for 10 years already. They know how to work this stuff. That’s what makes us unique,” noted Kallunki.

As a virtual production studio, co-producer and film financier, Fireframe’s imminent goal is to “democratize” the virtual production industry, he said, allowing smaller or medium-sized productions to get big results.

“We already are ‘the place’ for it in the Nordics. Now, we are in talks with U.S. production studios as well.”

At the time of writing, Fireframe is in the final stages of completing “the largest fixed installation greenscreen studio in the Nordics,” which will be equipped with a camera tracking system and a truss system for stunt rigging.

“On the co-production side, where we can provide some financing as needed, the overall budget range of productions we are currently negotiating with spans from €3 million to €40 million. However, the majority of our in-house IP in development and pre-production falls within the €10 million to €25 million range,” added Kallunki.