The Clan of the Cave bear - New tv series adaptation.

[AngelLestat]

The Clan of the Cave Bear

New tv series (currently in production) based on the famous saga "Earth's Children" written by Jean M. Auel.

I could not believe it when yesterday someone told me that the pilot for this series was being filmed.

This is one of the best book saga that I have read, but I was a bit concern, this is not an easy adaptation, but after I read about the team behind this production, all my concern disappeared, it has all the ingredients for the success.

The project is a co-production of Fox 21 and Lionsgate in association with Imagine Television and Allison Shearmur Productions. Exec producers are Ron Howard (Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, Rush), Brian Grazer, Allison Shearmur, Linda Woolverton, Francie Calfo and Auel. Woolverton, whose credits include (Maleficent, Alice in Wonderland and The Lion King) will pen the pilot.

“I’ve always admired Jean M. Auel’s timeless work,†said Rob Sharenow, Lifetime’s exec VP and general manager. “With this visionary creative team behind it, this project has it all  epic storytelling, great characters and a unique world that’s never been explored on television before. This is exactly the type of top-tier creative talent and great stories we embrace at Lifetime.â€Â

This is not the trailer.

Millie Brady will play Ayla, looks perfect for the role, but she will need a more athletic look by the next year.

A picture that she took from the set.

Rest of the cast: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3864098/

An scale reference of a prehistoric Bison for actors, Ron Howard in front.

About the books:

This book series has sold 60 million copies globally and all six books have been New York Times bestsellers. To compare; Game of thrones book series reach that number only after its 5th season.

The name of the saga is "Earth's Children", the first book is "The Clan of the Cave Bear" (1980), the historical story takes place around 28,000 years ago, it centers on Ayla, a Cro-Magnon (modern humans) girl who is homeless and orphaned after an earthquake at the age of five. The Clan (a group of Neanderthals) find her almost death, Iza the medicine woman, decides to save and adopt her, but Ayla life will not be easy, she is a child of the “Others.†As Ayla matures into a young woman of spirit and courage, she must fight for survival against the jealous bigotry of Broud, who will one day might be clan leader. (first book plot)

The last book was published in 2011.

I love the saga, so I strongly recomend the books for those interested in a new reading, maybe it does not have the best plot ever or the best writing skills, but I remember that after reading some chapters, I couldn't bear to look to the city, even with all our comfort, I just wanted to keep reading to be reabsorbed into that world.

This series also help me a lot to understand many misconceptions that "we almost all have" about prehistory, we tend to forget that before Romans or the Egyptians, the world also spinning, we dint have the big civilizations, but it was also people with a lot of great stories to tell, in a world full of life and dangers, under an ice age where 2 different human species will cross their destiny.

About the author:

Jean M. Auel began extensive library research of the Ice Age for her first book, we need to notice that the only books she wrote, was the 6 mentioned here. He focus her whole life to this story.

She was praise and criticized by field experts in matter of the descriptions and predictions she did in her story.

But eventually, new studies came, and mostly all critics was proven wrong, she wrote things that science was able to confirm in all these last years.

This was not luck, she wanted to be accurate in the description of that age, so she traveled for the whole world visiting all the archaeological sites, talking with all the field experts and analizing evidence and theories.

The plot, action and drama from the first books was great, but with the last books was in decline, maybe due the author wish to describe all the things she knew and her advanced age (+75) that might reduce her taste for drama and action; which can be easily solve in the tv series.

About the 1986 movie with Daryl Hannah.

There was a movie of the first book in 1986, but it was a failure due many reasons.

First is impossible to try to resume the first book into a movie, you need at least 10 episodes, which is something that we might see in this series.

The movie budget was low, the special effects not upto the task and the first book is the most difficult to adapt from the whole series, this is because there is not spoken languege, they communicated mostly by complex signs, body language and some words. In the book is easier, because you know what they said, but in a movie you will need to add suptitles or a voice in off, or nothing as they did in this movie, where all the complexity of the characters was loss. But I have not doubt they will manage to solve this issue in the series.

I have not doubt that the pilot will be approved to show green light for the first seasons, this will be as a breath of fresh air from all other series which are a repetitive dance of cliche and common plots.

Edited September 7, 2015 by AngelLestat