A New Movie Should Be Made - The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986) Discussion

[–] cristiroma 18 years ago

Have you read all the books? You should and will be amazed. I am on 3rd book (The Mammoth Hunters) now, but I just finished the Valley of the Horses which was even more impressing (in my oppinion) than Clan of the cave bear.
The books contain an astonishing amount of research, from flowers used for healing materials to places, habits. It is well documented and not purely invention.

In my oppinion it would be very difficult to make a series of movies after the Earth's Children. The most interesting things are the thoughts of Ayla, the teachings of Iza, people's inner thoughts which are hard to express in video and above that lacking the common language. Don't you think a new movie will still be boring? (Don't get me wrong, I think too the books are best I ever read, but as I read somewhere - movie and book are different styles of entertainment).

Of course I wish to see a series with computer generated mammoth and cave lions, gorgeous landscape will fit, but will be very difficult and probably will have the same faith of this movie (small income over budget - and this is one thing that matters in entertainment industry).

Probably we will have to stick to reality and read the book, and also look at some BBC/Discovery/NG documentaries :D

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[–] Naomi_Ravenmoon 18 years ago

I have. Was ecstatic when "Shelters of Stone" came out. It was good, but alot of it was just a retelling of her and the adventures. Hmmm....need to read it again.

I'd have to say "Plains of Passage" is my favorite. I've read it over and over. I love how unique each People is from the others, but that all share some of the same beliefs. The S'Armuni is my favorite part of the story.

Naomi Silverflame, of the Kingdom of the Golden Plains (Amtgard)

--"V for Vendetta"--

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[–] symphonic_adoration 18 years ago

Funny, that was my least favourite book out of all of them. I loved "The Clan of the Cave Bear", of course, and "Valley of the Horses" was okay, but "Mammoth Hunters" and "Shelters of Stone" were my favourite because Auel wrote about the people and the relationships between them, more than she wrote about the history and the environment. At first, the descriptions of the landscape were interesting, but after awhile, I got pretty bored. In "Plains of Passage" I can respect the magnitude of their journey, but I can only read about it for so long. They fought, they crossed a river. They were short on food. They crossed another river. They found a new, exciting plant. They crossed another river and the animals almost died. They saw a new herd of something-or-another and... crossed another river. It's a bit like Dave Barry's comment about Lord of the Rings - We don't need to watch Frodo walk across Mordor in realtime. I guess I just prefer the longer sections about people, where the main focus is on the culture and relationships and not the flora/fauna and... rivers.

-Cat

"We always find something, eh Didi, to give us the impression we exist?" - Samuel Beckett

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[–] Naomi_Ravenmoon 18 years ago

Oh, I agree, some of it gets boring, I know the book well enough that when i'm reading sometimes I skip pages, because my favorite parts are the interactions with people!

Naomi Silverflame, of the Kingdom of the Golden Plains (Amtgard)

--"V for Vendetta"--

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[–] grey_phoenix22 18 years ago

I honestly do not think a good version of the first book can ever really be made. Because there is no speaking in the book. It is all sign language and would need subtitles. While this works for foriegn films, I just don't think it will ever work in this film.
Now, if they ever made a version of Valley of the Horses, I think that might actually really do well. There would be a nice combination of silent acting (Ayla) and diologue (Jondalar).
But perhaps we'll never know.

"There's no wrong way to eat a Jesus."-Mollie

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[–] lavashop 14 years ago

I,too, love Valley of the Horses.
It's brilliant and majestic.
I sincerely hope that all the books will eventually be made into films.

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[–] salestreetuk 14 years ago

I agree, all books should be turned into movies. Guess the problem was that not many people knew there was a movie aabout The Clan of the Cave Bear. Now there are millions and millions of people worldwide who would love to see the book series made into movies. I am definately one of them. I have read them all and will start on the newest edition "The Land of Painted Caves".

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[–] bootblack987 12 years ago

"I honestly do not think a good version of the first book can ever really be made. Because there is no speaking in the book. It is all sign language and would need subtitles. While this works for foriegn films, I just don't think it will ever work in this film."

I just checked the-numbers.com and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon made $128 million in the U.S. I was surprised to see that the international box office was lower...only 85 million (I thought it might have made that much in China alone). So American audiences aren't averse to reading subtitles...I'm hoping that would mean a new version of Clan of the Cave Bear could be a BIG box office success if made by the right people.

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[–] wearetheborg-1 17 years ago

If they make a new movie they should include the scene where Ayla drinks that sacred herb root juice and sees a vision of the future of her descendants.

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[–] Cuddlepie 17 years ago

WOW and i thought i was the only one. Yep need to do a another movie. And maybe the complete series. Just Loved this Series

MuaHaHa

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[–] river_janice 17 years ago

I don't remember when I first saw this movie, but I remember that I liked it. I've since read all the books, several times and am convinced that the movie does not do the first book justice. It's hard to do when you are dealing with pre-history.

I would love to see a series of movies made for all of the books. However, I don't think feature film is the way to go. Maybe a TV miniseries on cable or something. I'm currently reading the series again, and am about through. I have been thinking that while I get bored and tired of reading about all the flora and fauna, I can see where the author is going. She's trying to make the world of Ayla real for everyone. She wants us to "see" what Ayla sees. So I'm okay with that. I know that if a mini series or feature films were done, that a lot of that would be "seen" on the screen. So long as the interactions with people and cultures was represented fully, I'd be okay. But I don't think there will ever be the budget for a feature film along the lines of LOTR. So maybe we'll see a mini series.

Here's hoping.

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[–] Judimex 16 years ago

The books are wonderful. I wonder how come they screwed the movie up so badly.

If it harms none, do what thou wilt.

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[–] lauren_m775 16 years ago

I loved the first one, read it when i was about 12 years old, just lay in my room and read until i finished it, seriously didn't eat or sleep or shower.
but i hated the others. The second one was okay, but the third one was just a soap opera and the fourth one - agree with the earlier statement, except you should add that every time they crossed a river they had graphic sex. I stopped reading after that one.

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[–] ashleynkya 16 years ago

I agree that the graphic sex in the books was unnecessary. I guess it was added to also appeal to an audience that require sex scenes to keep them interested.
The depth of knowledge in the books is outstanding. I gained so much knowledge on ways of curing hides and healing plants through reading the books.
My wife and I discussed if they would make good films, but as already stated, they focus so much on the thoughts of the characters and the plant and animal life around them, that I doubt you could make a good film of them, no matter what the budget. This was before I knew that a movie had been made of the first. After reading the comments, I won't be watching it.
The books are amazing in themselves, they were written as books and should stay that way. Not every book can be made into films. Use your imagination when you read them, the film is in your mind.
My favorite was valley of the horses. One persons struggle to survive alone, but they are all good in thier own way. I would recommend them to anyone interested in ancient history and like a good story.

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[–] starfinder07 15 years ago

I think they could do a pretty good job on the movies if they ever did them. It wouldn't be the same as the books because movies never are but I think they could do it. I would watch them if they were made.

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[–] omegaman7769-1 15 years ago

Perhaps there was a bit much sex, but I understand why. Sex is not necessarily porn. It really depends on who is reading/watching. I see sex as love. When two people love one another, they show it. Sex is beautiful. Sex is the act of two people showing love for one another. I think the books are wonderfully written, in how they convey this :p
I thought the movie was quite good. But not as good as my imagination made it ;) I would however not be opposed to sequels, or a complete redo. Jean Auels books are among the best books I've ever read, hands down.

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[–] Cuddlepie 14 years ago

Maybe in a few years we might get another movie. But i think if they do another one they need to do the whole series not just one book.

Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Oh, God! I can't *know* that!

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[–] Caprica_Tonks 15 years ago

Yup needs to be redone. I was thinking a series though, rather than a movie, and to stay so close to the books they will be accused of stalking.

Also, Charlie Hunnam for Jondalar. Droooooool.

~I can hear his beard!!~

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[–] ippongirl1982 14 years ago

I'll admit I haven't seen the film, but I agree that doing the first one properly would be difficult unless they used the characters' thoughts as dialogue so they didn't actually speak but you heard their thoughts or something. They did that in an Antonino Banderas film, I forget the name. They had no subtitles for the foreign languages but when he was watching them at a fire one night the dialogue changed to english, symbolising him learning the language. I think something similar would work with Clan, making everything silent until Ayla realises the hand signals are their way of speaking.

Before you ask the reason why I haven't seen the film is Daryl Hannah. She's OK but she's just far too old for the part. Ayla is supposed to be a girl, she's 14 when she leaves the Clan, not 29! They'd probably never make the film with a girl that young though, given some of the content, but I think it would be important to try to make the girl closer to that age. Part of the appeal of Ayla is that no one can believe what she's been through at such a long age so using someone in their 20s would lessen that, I think. If they do redo it, and I hope it is done but done well, I'd hope they'd use someone less than 20.

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[–] Avalon987 14 years ago

The 13th Warrior is the movie you're thinking of ;-)

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[–] Blueghost 12 years ago

I never read the book, but the movie looked interesting enough to warrant a reworking. I'm still on the fence about it. The story of some blond girl out doing the lesser tribe puts a wry dismissive smirk on my face. Even so, it would be nice to see a more thorough and historically accurate production (in spite of the story itself).

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