Netflix has gotten their mittened hands on the U.S. rights to Liam Neeson and Laurence Fishburne's action-thriller The Ice Road. Netflix paid $18 million for the film, making the sale a record domestic-only deal.
In The Ice Road, after a remote diamond mine collapses in the far northern regions of Canada, an ice driver (Neeson) leads an impossible rescue mission over a frozen ocean to save the lives of trapped miners despite thawing waters and a threat they never see coming.
Directed and written by Die Hard With A Vengeance and Armageddon writer Jonathan Hensleigh, The Ice Road features Neeson in yet another action film, after he claimed to be stepping away from the genre. “I’m 68 and a half. 69 this year,” Neeson told Entertainment Tonight's Lauren Zima during a recent interview. “There’s a couple more I’m going to do this year — hopefully, COVID allowing us — there’s a couple in the pipeline and, then I think that will probably be it.”
My guess is that The Ice Road falls within Neeson's "couple in the pipeline" comment, but seriously, how many times is this dude going to retire his very particular set of skills? If you've got it, flaunt it, and I'll bet Neeson still has a few necks to snap before he's done making action movies.
What's the over/under on Neeson retiring from action films before the end of the year? Would you put money down on him sticking to his guns, or will some studio convince him to keep going by backing a dump truck full of money onto his front lawn? Only time will tell. My thoughts are that so long as studios do their best to keep Neeson safe, he can go for as long as his heart desires.
