Box Office Bomb: The film’s budget was $15-$18 million, while it grossed just under $2 million at the domestic box office, killing any chance of the sequels being adapted.
California Doubling: The film is set in Upper Palaeolithic Eastern Europe, and was primarily filmed in Canada.
Completely Different Title: In most countries the film was released with a direct translation of the English title. In Germany it was released with the title Ayla and the Clan of the Bear, which is still pretty close to the original. In Italy, though, it was released with the still-relevent but much less specific title Cro-Magnon.
Creator Killer: A downplayed example with director Michael Chapman. He was primarily a cinematographer; The Clan of the Cave Bear was only his second film as director. After the film's critical and commercial failure, Chapman would stick to the cinematography profession until 1995's The Viking Sagas, his last film as director (as well as a TV movie the same year Clan was released). Luckily, cinematography worked out much better for him.
Disowned Adaptation: Jean M. Auel regards the film adaptation as "terrible", especially because she wasn’t able to have any input into the making of it despite being promised she could. She disliked it enough that after the film rights reverted to her, she vowed never to sell them again in her lifetime (although she later softened her stance, allowing a TV pilot based on the books to be made in 2015).
The European cave lions (Panthera spelaea) are portrayed by African lions (Panthera leo); although related the two are distinct from each other and cave lions were much bigger (around 12% larger than modern lions).
The cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) is portrayed by Bart the Bear, who was a Kodiak bear (Ursus arctos middendorffi); based on fossil records, it's believed that cave bears were on average around the same size or slightly larger than Kodiak bears, and were closely related to brown bears.
The Shelf of Movie Languishment: According to production notes, principal photography lasted from early July 1984 to late October 1984, but the movie wasn't released theatrically until well over a year later in January 1986 (where it bombed financially).
Stillborn Franchise: The film was intended to be the first in a series, with plans to adapt the rest of the books (at the time of its 1986 release, three books out of a planned six had been published and Auel was writing the fourth). Unfortunately, the film was disliked by both fans and critics - and the author herself - and was a box office flop. No sequels were made and it's largely faded into obscurity in comparison to the books.
Those Two Actors: James Remar (Creb) and Thomas G. Waites (Broud) both previously starred in the 1979 Cult ClassicThe Warriors as Ajax and Fox respectively.note Waites wasn't credited in the film at his request due to falling out with the director Funnily enough, their roles are almost reversed here; Ajax is a violent, impulsive and sexually aggressive jerkass not too dissimilar from Broud, while Fox is far more reasonable, diplomatic and forward-thinking like Creb.
Troubled Production: According to some reports, filming didn't always go smoothly; the crew initially wanted to use real caves on-location but couldn't find any suitable ones and so resorted to building sets. The actors also had to film under difficult conditions; most of the film takes place outside and the temperatures could sometimes plunge to 5 degrees Fahrenheit, with the actors wearing little but a few animal pelts. If that wasn't enough, the make-up for the Neanderthal characters (which is pretty much the entire cast save for Ayla) took three-and-a-half hours to apply.
What Could Have Been: Producer Gerald Isenberg originally intended for it to be a Made-for-TV Movie and approached NBC about it, but they weren't interested. Isenberg reportedly also approached several other studios, including Universal Pictures, about financing and distributing the film, but they too declined.
This was one of Bart the Bear's first film roles (he plays the cave bear at the Clan Gathering).
