Ice Station Zebra gets another screen adaptation...

Alistair MacLean is known for writing many Cold War and spy thrillers in his period of the golden age, from 1955 to 1986. Many of his books have been adapted into films, such as The Guns of Navarrone, Where Eagles Dare, When Eight Bells Toll, Ice Station Zebra, Puppet On A Chain and Force 10 From Navarrone, which was his last golden writing. He also worked on many scripts and story ideas independent from being novels, short stories or certain amount of books, most notably Death Train, which was produced for the small screen in the early 1990s, and later spawning a sequel. Ice Station Zebra itself was one of the best films, and one of the most underrated products in the Hollywood history. It was released in 1968, three years later after the book was published. Starring Rock Hudson, Patrick McGoohan, Ernest Borgnine and Jim Brown, and directed by John Sturges.

Ice Station Zebra

The plot itself revolves around real-life events taken place during the Cold War era, between the western countries and the Soviets. It was full of suspenseful moments, high-octane thrilling moments, incredible heart-bumping twists, and deadly schemes coming from two enemy sides. The British Intelligence sends a reluctant covert operative, introduced by the name of David Jones (Patrick McGoohan) to retrieve a British top secret microchip placed in a USSR surveillance satellite capsule, which apparently has entered the Earth's surface and landed on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, near Ice Station Zebra. Jones teams up with an American Naval Commander called James Ferraday (Rock Hudson) and his submarine crew to escort him to the exact same location where he needs to investigate. They are joined by a defected Russian spy, Boris Vaslov (Ernest Borgnine), who seems to be accompanying Jones to help him out through the assignment he's sent to clear up; and US combat commander, Captain Leslie Anders (Jim Brown) to control and handle the marines on board. As they take off, they survive many sabotage attempts to which Jones suspects there certainly is a mole in the circle, and informs Ferraday about it. The story never stops the viewer from getting shocked and thrilled from its plot twists and deadly surprises.

Ice Station Zebra novel featuring Dr. Carpenter, the narrator of the story, on the cover.

However, as of 2013, it was reported that Christopher McQuarrie, an American film director, was going to make yet another adaptation of the Alistair MacLean novel of the same name, but the setting remains unknown if it's going to take place in the 1960s as it was in the novel and the film, or at modern times. But, here's one thing that remaking this film would likely result in a huge disaster. Nowadays, Hollywood is known for making everything so politically correct that the material loses its sense of meaning. All they care about is just money and spotlights. For instance, I cannot see anybody taking on either of the roles the actors played in the original movie, but Warner Bros thinks otherwise. If they are going to adapt the novel into film again, modern setting should never occur, but the time should go back to the Cold War era. Re-imagining a material in a different way always causes a disaster for the original audience, who consider the happening to be a big blasphemy. I couldn't blame them at all. However, if it's going to be set in the 1960s again, then I have no one other but to choose Toby Stephens to play the role of David Jones... or Dr. Carpenter as it was in the novel. Of course, sometimes the films differ a lot from their source material, and the 1968 Sturges film was one of those. Stephens' way of acting is way too similar to Patrick McGoohan's performances which personally led me to cast him as John Drake if Danger Man ever got a film adaption one day, but only time tells what could happen.

Alistair MacLean.

As a conclusion to this article, not much of the real story was mentioned or reported. But, it's likely for McQuarrie to cast Tom Cruise in the role of Commander of USN, James Ferraday in the role, as the two worked before on Jack Reacher, an adaptation of a novel in a series of the same name, One Shot, by Lee Child. And they are said to be working together on a fifth Mission: Impossible movie, which I speculate is going to be released in 2016, which marks the 50th anniversary of the franchise.

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