Searchlight Lands Theatrical Remake Rights To Oscar-Nominated National Geographic Docu ‘Fire Of Love’, Lava Love Story Of French Volcanologists

EXCLUSIVE: Searchlight Pictures is making a deal to turn Fire of Love into a narrative feature. The film, which tells the story of the scientific research and romance of preeminent French volcanologist filmmakers Katia and Maurice Krafft, is a frontrunner in the Oscar race for Best Documentary after premiering atthe 2022 Sundance Film Festival, winning a Jury Prize and being acquired by National Geographic Documentary Films.

The docu is filled with stunning footage of the couple braving the dangers of volcanoes that exploded and spewed red-hot lava, but the core of the tale that lends itself so well to a narrative version is the love story between them, before they paid the ultimate price for their passionate pursuit of erupting volcanoes. The couple died together in a volcanic eruption in 1991.

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Searchlight Pictures will finance and distribute, and Jamie Patricof’s Hunting Lane will develop and produce. Fire of Love director-producer Sara Dosa and producer Shane Boris are attached to produce, and producer Ina Fichman will be exec producer alongside Josh Braun and Ben Braun from Submarine Deluxe, and Greg Boustead and Jessica Harrop from Sandbox Films.

Dosa and her team assembled the doc from thousands of photographs and hundreds of hours of footage from the couple’s archives. Miranda July provided narration, and the soundtrack was composed by Nicholas Godin of Air. The docu was released theatrically in over 28 countries, grossing over $1.1 million in the U.S. through distribution by Neon, which drove it to become the fourth highest-grossing documentary since the pandemic began.

Dosa won the DGA Award for Best Documentary, and the film got PGA and BAFTA noms among other accolades. The docu can be viewed on Disney+ and Hulu.

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