Noah Romsdal Hallundbæk Sørensen
The Best Served Cold movie once looked like the next big fantasy hit.
The plan once sounded irresistible.
A major fantasy novel, a high-profile director and a star actress were aligned for a big-screen adaptation that promised scale and brutality.
Years later, that momentum appears to have faded.
New comments from the filmmaker involved suggest the project quietly slipped away, leaving fans with little more than what might have been.
Early promise
In 2023, news emerged that Joe Abercrombie’s novel Best Served Cold was being adapted into a live-action film.
Skydance had hired Tim Miller, known for Deadpool, to direct the project.
Rebecca Ferguson was attached to star as Monza Murcatto, a mercenary leader driven by revenge in a gritty, pre-industrial European setting.
Miller described the concept as “Kill Bill meets Game of Thrones,” raising expectations among fantasy fans.
The story was positioned as a grounded yet expansive take on Abercrombie’s violent, morally complex world, and early enthusiasm suggested franchise potential.
Development stalls
Progress slowed when the Writers Guild of America strike disrupted Hollywood schedules.
Around the same time, Skydance’s merger with Paramount placed multiple projects under review.
No formal cancellation was announced, allowing hope to linger. However, updates on Best Served Cold never materialised, and the adaptation quietly disappeared from studio conversations.
That silence persisted until Miller addressed the subject publicly.
Miller speaks out
Speaking to Corridor Digital during its VFX Artists React series, Miller reflected on recent projects that failed to move forward.
“Best Served Cold, the Joe Abercombie book. That was at Skydance with Rebecca Ferguson, who was perfect for the character. And… it just didn’t happen,” he said.
The director added that several films had come close before falling apart, offering no specific reason for the outcome.
A larger universe
The disappointment extends beyond a single film. Best Served Cold is set within the wider First Law universe, which began with The Blade Itself in 2006 and has since grown into a connected series of novels.
The setting blends political intrigue, fading magic and brutal action, earning a devoted readership and frequent comparisons to prestige fantasy adaptations.
Some industry watchers had speculated that Paramount and Skydance could use the property as a flagship franchise, spanning films and streaming projects.
What remains
Miller has continued to praise Abercrombie’s work, calling the novels “the books I’m hopefully, one day, adapting,” though his reference to Best Served Cold remained firmly in the past tense.
Hollywood projects can be revived unexpectedly, but for now the adaptation appears to have stalled indefinitely.
Fans may have to accept that this particular vision of Abercrombie’s world is one that, at least for now, simply did not happen.
Sources: Screenrant
