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Prehistoric Adventure Adaptation Struggles to Find Footing at the Box Office
15 Nov, 2025
Summary
- Producers struggled to finance $16 million Clan of the Cave Bear film adaptation
- Daryl Hannah faced grueling shoot conditions but script proved difficult to translate
- Film earned Oscar nomination for makeup but grossed less than $2 million in the U.S.
In the mid-1980s, a film adaptation of Jean M. Auel's novel The Clan of the Cave Bear nearly never made it to the big screen. However, thanks to the efforts of Mark Damon's Producers Sales Organization (PSO), the $16 million project was able to secure financing by selling off international distribution rights at the American Film Market.
Producers Gerald Isenberg and Stan Rogow had initially tried to interest NBC in a made-for-TV movie version of the prehistoric adventure, which follows a Cro-Magnon girl adopted by a Neanderthal family, but were unsuccessful. It was then that PSO stepped in, helping to raise the necessary funds to shoot the film on location in British Columbia.
