Photo from the instagram account of Sangeet Prabhaker, makeup artist
Principal shooting for the Clan of the Cave Bear TV Series pilot has wrapped in South Africa! The above photo is a breathtaking collage of shooting locations shared by Sangeet Prabhaker, a prosthetics and special effects makeup artist working on the project.
Yay! I hope there will be some teasers coming soon to begin promoting the airing, but I guess realistically that won't begin for a couple of months?? I wish I was better versed in this world of entertainment to know better what to say :).
As you might imagine, the news is pretty light (and when I say light, I mean non-existent) on the progress of the shooting for Clan of the Cave Bear in South Africa. There are occasional pictures shared on instagram that I've been excited to see:
This one from Hal Ozsan's Instagram. He is playing Brun, who might be my favorite character in the book owing to the way Jean M. Auel's writing shines when she writes from his perspective.
...And this one from Rebecca Calder's Instagram account. I've been squinting, turning my head sideways, struggling in vain to see what is going on. Keep in mind, it might just be a nice shot, completely unrelated to production!
The Clan of the Cave Bear pilot is being shot in and around Cape Town and Overberg region of South Africa. If you check out the links, you can tell how much potential and variety this country has to offer for shooting the story of Ayla and Brun's Clan. It just looks and feels right.
Here's a cool shot from Millie Brady's instagram account of shooting in Grabouw. On the left you can see some skins being stretched on frames. That light coming through the trees is magical, isn't it?
There are some cool posts on a blog called Wonders of Style showcasing her 6 week trip around the same general area being used by COCB. I particularly liked the views of Betty's Bay, although that's probably not a shooting location since there are obvious signs of development near the shores?
Speaking of Grabouw, here is a clip of the Xterra Triathlon from a few years ago of athlete Conrad Stoltz, who funnily enough for the purposes of this blog, is known as "The Caveman." If you start at the 1:00 mark you can see footage of the race and get a good look at the surrounding land. It looks and feels just right.
Did you know that South Africa is home to the "Cradle of Civilization?" This title refers to a 180 square mile area outside of Johannesburg that was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999 in recognition of the old age as well as volume of hominid fossils found in the area.
Ayla is the main character of Clan of the Cave Bear. At the beginning of the story she loses her family (Cro-Magnon like her) as well as any knowledge of the people she came from as the result of an earthquake. She wanders alone in the wilderness, a 5 year old suddenly on her own. Eventually she is adopted by a similarly displaced group of Neanderthals. She must learn their ways and figure out how to become accepted as one of them.
My description of Ayla is: from her earliest years we can tell she is outgoing and full of love and friendship. She seems innately good at knowing what is inside people's hearts and responsive to what she sees. She always wants to learn as much as she can as fast as she can to make her loved ones and herself happy (in that order). She is very open-minded and curious. Ayla has many creative ideas and is not deterred by whether or not everyone else "gets it." She loves deeply and is loyal to a fault. She can kick ass when needed. She doesn't ask "Why?" she asks "Why not?"
Millie Brady is playing Ayla in the new series. She is not someone I'm personally familiar with, but to me it's a bonus that she can just be Ayla from the get go. Sometimes when a character is built up in your mind as looking and acting a certain way it can be tough to accept the version presented to you on the screen if it's different.
I hope Millie can bring to her portrayal of Ayla that mix of strength and vulnerability which have made the character such an enduring favorite for the last 30 odd years since Clan of the Cave Bear was first published. I am rooting for her to do well. You can also look for Millie Brady in the meantime in a couple of new movies coming out still in 2015 - Legend and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
Here are her social media accounts if you want to check for an occasional glimpse into production:
A few COCB-related stirrings online this last week:
This instagram photo above, posted by actor Nik Rasenti captioned:
"Boys getting more make up then the girls. Make up truck shenanigans."
SO who is he being made up as? If you look at his instagram account there is another picture with the answer: Zoug! (7/24/15)
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There is also a short twitter video Ron Howard posted of cute little Gentoo penguins in Capetown, S.A. near where the filming is taking place. (7/24/15)
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Special effects make-up artist Jodi Hartogh posted this beautiful photo on Instagram captioned:
It's awesome to see even the tiniest hints of what the series will look like....which is good, since there are only the tiniest hints available :). (7/26/15)
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In case you haven't seen it, here is the Promo video that many of the known cast and production team have tweeted out:
Don't forget to vote in the poll you can find in the sidebar to the right of your screen!
The first book in Jean M. Auel's Earth's Children book series, Clan of the Cave Bear, is being turned into a TV Series set to air on Lifetime, possibly in late 2015.
Clan of the Cave Bear is the story of a Cro Magnon girl named Ayla who loses her family, and her entire people, but is taken in by a clan of Neanderthals. Jean M. Auel writes beautifully and evocatively of prehistoric life and the surprisingly timeless emotions that her characters experience. I'm really looking forward to seeing it come to life on the screen and thought it would be fun to create a blog to focus this excitement!
I am curious to see how much of the fan base of the new series will be made up of people new to the story and how much will be those people who already have read the books many times over. Will the producers, writers and actors be able to play to both facets of their audience and keep everyone happy?
I'm hopeful that the series will be well done because of the track record of the people involved. According to TVLine:
The potential series, which is being eyed for a possible 2015 launch, is exec-produced by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, along with Allison Shearmur (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire), Linda Woolverton (Maleficent), who is writing the pilot, Francie Calfo (Gang Related, Empire) and Jean M. Auel.
I'm working on adding new info as I find it, putting helpful links on the sidebar and looking forward to having fun discussions with other fans.
