Aurora grad living movie-making dream as she helms "Gemini" with local film crew
Nicole Ice has long been a film buff with a particular fondness for "weird" movies.
"I love film. Obsessed. I've watched the most obscure movies that you'll never hear of and never want to watch," Ice said.
But she's not just sitting at home or in a dark theater watching films — she's making them.
Ice, who graduated from Aurora High School in 2000, is counting down the days until her latest project, the science fiction comedy "Gemini," premieres at a red carpet event in Columbiana on Feb. 10.
"It's basically about two twin sisters that are aliens that were born on Earth, but then separated," Ice said. "One went back to the home planet, one stayed here, as newborns. It's the journey of them finding each other and then fighting to stay together on Earth."
Ice not only is the film's producer, but also for the first time is the director and screenwriter, adapting the script from a novel written by Ohio resident Jimmy Taaffe, the film's executive producer.
"It's a lot different than the book," Ice said. "But I did figure out a way to be able to make this movie with the writer of the book being happy and also working within the budget that I was given. So I had to change quite a few things from the book to the screenplay."
Taking her time
In high school in the late 1990s, Ice ran track. But more important to her future career as a filmmaker was her interest in the written word, with a visual bent.
"I excelled very much at literature, in English and writing," Ice said. "I always wanted to find a way to show what my words actually were. I was always like, 'Well, you know, it'd be great if I made that a graphic novel or if I made this a movie.'"
But she didn't just jump into filmmaking. After graduation, she studied political science with the aim of eventually becoming an attorney. She also does standup comedy. She has performed at the West Side Bowl in Youngstown and other area venues, as well as in Los Angeles.
Although she has spent a lot of time in L.A., Ice now lives in Columbiana, primarily due to not wanting to uproot her two teenage children.
Still, cinema has remained on her mind.
"It was always something that I wanted to dabble in," she said. "I just wasn't sure if I wanted to immerse myself fully into it."
In 2013, she started her production company, IceStrongo Productions, and got her feet wet with small projects — "nothing notable," she says — and then stopped for a time after leaving Portage County in 2015 to focus on other things outside of film.
She owned The Pet Hydrant, a pet specialty bakery she sold in 2017, and cider house and winery Sundog Ciderhouse. Both are located in the Columbiana area, about 20 minutes south of Youngstown.
But over the last couple years or so, she has become more involved with film production, and she finally sold Sundog Ciderhouse in December to devote more time to it.
"Now it's something that I am doing on a more consistent basis," she said.
She did some assistant directing, as well as casting for extras on a 2022 holiday film, "An Angelic Christmas." She was also a producer on a 2023 romantic drama, "Angel Mine," also based on a novel by Taaffe. She has also worked on some script rewrites.
But her involvement with "Gemini" is much heavier.
A local production
"Gemini" was shot over 18 days in the Youngstown area — principally in Columbiana and Leetonia — in April 2023.
The twin sisters in the movie are played by Angela Cole, who also starred in "Angel Mine," and Cara DeChurch. Also in the cast, playing a character named Fietch, is Scott Schwartz. He is known to "A Christmas Story" fans as Flick, the boy whose tongue has an unfortunate encounter with a very cold metal pole.
"He's basically a space pirate [in 'Gemini'], and he deals in all kinds of illegal things, like finding orbs to send people to other planets and things like that," said Ice.
Ice said most of her crew members are locals, including her brother. A 2008 Aurora High School graduate, Beau Ice served as continuity editor and script supervisor.
An exception was stunt supervisor Kevin Kent. A former Navy SEAL, Kent has worked as a military technical consultant on a number of productions, including "Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan." He also had a role on the series, which ended in 2023 after four seasons.
It is uncertain when "Gemini" will be more widely available, but Ice said she is currently talking to three distribution companies that have expressed an interest in the film.
But even as she tries to get her movie before as many audiences as possible, she has started looking beyond "Gemini." Ice said she has two feature films and a television series in development.
"I have ... three other projects that are being funded right now," she said. "I've written all of those."
More: Movie crew transforms Portage County into Italian countryside for new WWII film
"Gemini" will premiere at the Columbiana Cultural Collective, 5 N. Main St. Doors open at 5 p.m., live music starts at 6:15 p.m. and the movie begins at 7 p.m. Cast and crew will be present, with a question-and-answer period afterwards.
Ice said tickets have sold well enough that a second showing is planned for 2 p.m. Feb. 11. It will be pared down, without the cast and crew present. Visit to columbianaculturalcollective.com for tickets.
A trailer for the movie can be seen at geminithemovie.com.
Reporter Jeff Saunders can be reached at jsaunders@recordpub.com.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: "Gemini" film produced locally by Aurora grad premieres next month
