TVLine reports that Lifetime has ordered a pilot based on The Clan Of The Cave Bear, thus adding cavewomen to its lineup of witches, maids, plus-sized lawyers, military spouses, and preachers’ daughters who are just trying to find a real man. The series is being produced by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment, along with The Hunger Games: Catching Fire producer Allison Shearmur, series creator Jean M. Auel, and Maleficent writer Linda Woolverton.
For those who did not spend their adolescence furtively bookmarking the dirty parts of library books, The Clan Of The Cave Bear is the first in a series of six novels by Jean M. Auel. Set 25,000 years in the past, Auel’s “Earth’s Children” series details the adventures of Ayla, a blonde, blue-eyed Cro-Magnon who is adopted by a swarthy Neanderthal tribe and must struggle against the bigotry of her lesser-evolved comrades and embrace her destiny as the future of humankind. Plus, it’s got lots of questionable human-on-Neanderthal sex.
Uncomfortable racial implications and rape-y cavemen and all, Auel’s books have sold over 60 million copies worldwide, and The Clan Of The Cave Bear was adapted into a pretty terrible film starring Daryl Hannah back in 1986. Lifetime is presumably hoping to capture at least some of that audience with its TV version, which is set to debut next year.