Liam Neeson drama The Ice Road to film in Canada

Jonathan Hensleigh’s drama The Ice Road, starring Neeson, is set to film entirely in Winnipeg, Canada, from February 2020.

Neeson will play a big-rig ice road driver who, after a remote diamond mine collapses in the far northern regions of Canada, must lead an impossible rescue mission over a frozen ocean to save the trapped miners. 

Producer Bart Rosenblatt said they are shooting “Winnipeg for Winnipeg,” which he described as “unusual, as you have so many productions coming in and they’re always trying to cheat it for something else.”

The film will include many local actors and the crew is more than 90% Manitoban. Casting is currently underway.

Rosenblatt noted the action-packed film will feature a lot of stunt work on the ice. “There are trucks going through the ice, there are trucks being chased and there’s a lot of really interesting and exciting stunt and snowmobile work that’s going to be done on this film.”

CODE Entertainment and Envision Media Arts are backing the production, with Jonathan Dana and David Buelow executive producing, along with Lisa Wilson and Myles Nestel of The Solution.

Hensleigh is writing and directing the project. His previous work as a screenwriter includes Die Hard with a Vengeance, Armageddon, and Jumanji, and he directed The Punisher and Kill the Irishman.