Synopsis
From director Roland Emmerich (“Independence Day,” “The Day After Tomorrow”) comes a sweeping odyssey into a mythical age of prophesies and gods, when spirits rule the land and mighty mammoths shake the earth.
In a remote mountain tribe, the young hunter D’Leh (Steven Strait) has found his heart’s passion – the beautiful Evolet (Camilla Belle). But when a band of mysterious warlords raid his village and kidnap Evolet, D’Leh leads a small group of hunters to pursue the warlords to the end of the world to save her. As they venture into unknown lands for the first time, the group discovers there are civilizations beyond their own and that mankind’s reach is far greater than they ever knew. At each encounter the group is joined by other tribes who have been attacked by the slave raiders, turning D’Leh’s once-small band into an army.
Driven by destiny, the unlikely warriors must battle prehistoric predators while braving the harshest elements. At their heroic journey’s end, they uncover a lost civilization and learn their ultimate fate lies in an empire beyond imagination, where great pyramids reach into the skies. Here they will take their stand against a tyrannical god who has brutally enslaved their own. And it is here that D’Leh finally comes to understand that he has been called to save not only Evolet but all of civilization.
Warner Bros. Pictures presents, in association with Legendary Pictures, a Centropolis Production of a Roland Emmerich film: “10,000 BC,” starring Steven Strait, Camilla Belle and Cliff Curtis. Directed by Roland Emmerich, from a screenplay written by Roland Emmerich and Harald Kloser, the film is produced by Michael Wimer, Roland Emmerich and Mark Gordon. Harald Kloser, Sarah Bradshaw, Tom Karnowski, Thomas Tull and William Fay are the executive producers. The behind-the-scenes creative team includes director of photography Ueli Steiger, production designer Jean-Vincent Puzos, editor Alexander Berner, costume designers Odile Dicks-Mireaux and Renee April, and composers Harald Kloser and Thomas Wander. The film is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. “10,000 BC” will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company. This film has been rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action and violence.
Cast
Steven Strait as D'Leh, a mammoth hunter.
Carmilla Belle as Evolet, D'Leh's love and the survivor of a different tribe that was killed by the "four legged demons". While kidnapped, her hand was whipped, forming a scar in the shape of the "hunter".
Cliff Curtis as Tic Tic, D'Leh's mentor.
Joel Virgel as Nakudu, leader of the Naku tribe.
Affif Ben Badra as Warlord, leader of the "four legged demons" who falls in love with Evolet.
Mo Zinal as Ka'Ren
Nathanael Baring as Baku
Mona Hammond as Old Mother, the Yagahl wise old woman.
Marco Khan as One-Eye, Warlord's main henchman.
Reece Ritchie as Moha
Joel Fry as Lu'kibu
Kristian Beazley as D'Leh's father.
Junior Oliphant as Tudu, Nakudu's son.
Boubacar Badaine as Quina, leader of another tribe.
Tim Barlow as the Pyramid God. The last of the three surviving Atlanteans, he is a tyrant who sought to enslave all people on earth. The Pyramid God covers his body to hide signs of his aging from his followers to have think of him as divine. He also fears the "hunter", who is said to kill him.
Omar Shariff as Narrator
Production
Director Roland Emmerich and composer Harald Kloser originally penned a script for 10,000 BC. When the project received the greenlight from Columbia Pictures, screenwriter John Orloff began work on a new draft of the original script. Columbia Pictures, under Sony Pictures Entertainment, dropped the project due to a busy release calendar, and Warner Bros. picked up the project in Sony's vacancy. The script went through a second revision with Matthew Sand and a final revision with Robert Rodat. Emmerich rejected making the film in an ancient language (similar to The Passion of the Christ or Apocalypto), feeling it would not be as emotionally engaging.
Production began in spring 2006 in South Africa and Namibia. Location filming also took place in southern New Zealand and Thailand. Before shooting began, the production had spent eighteen months on research and development for the computer generated imagery. Two companies recreated prehistoric animals. To cut time (it was taking sixteen hours to render a single frame) 50% of the CGI models' fur was removed, as "it turned out half the fur looked the same" to the director.
Influences
Similarities to One Million Years B.C. have been pointed out by some critics. Glenn Whipp of the Los Angeles Daily News draws numerous comparisons between 10,000 BC and other films in the prehistoric film genre, especially One Million Years B.C. and Apocalypto.
At the 2008 Wondercon, Emmerich mentioned the fiction of Robert E. Howard as a primary influence for the film's setting.
The film also apparently draws on the theories advanced by Graham Hancock in suggesting the Pyramids of Egypt are far older than traditional archaeology currently argues, and that they are somehow related to an ancient civilization's fascination for the constellation of Orion.
Box Office Performance
In its opening weekend, the film grossed $35.8 million in 3,410 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking #1 at the box office — and grossing over $22 million more than the film in second place, College Road Trip. As of March 14, 2008, the film has grossed $42,857,643 in the United States and Canada and $25,875,065 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $68,732,708.