HBO Max is rebooting The Last of the Mohicans for their streaming service. It’s a bold move, considering the original story by James Fenimore Cooper is regarded as the first great American novel.
Additionally, the 1920 movie adaptation is “culturally significant” according to the Library of Congress. Its significance is so great that it has been preserved by the National Film Registry.
One thing is certain: HBO could have definitely picked an easier novel to reboot.
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What we know
The HBO Max series will be a “new take” and “retelling” of the novel. It will tell the tale of a romance between a young Mohican and a mixed-race daughter of a British colonel.
With the novel set in upstate New York and featuring Lake George, Halfway Brook, and Prospect Mountain, it will not be filmed on-site. It’s possible that the series will return to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, the location used for the 1992 Daniel Day-Lewis adaptation.
Credits on HBO Max’s new series include:
- Writers: Nick Osborne (All About Steve) and Emmy winner Cary Joji Fukunaga (True Detective).
- Director: Nicole Kassell, credits include Watchmen, The Following, and The Killing.
- Producers: Including Osborne, Fukunaga, Kassell, are Alex Goldstone (Welcome to the Jungle), Bard Dorros (Collateral Beauty), and Michael Sugar (Spotlight).
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Adaptations galore
HBO Max’s reboot of The Last of the Mohicans is not the first TV series adaptation. In 1971, the BBC created an eight-part miniseries that stayed true to the novel. This was the second serial adaptation. The original was in 1932 and filmed in Kernville, California, at the Iverson Ranch in Chatsworth starring Harry Carey. Along with the original 1920 movie, there have been five adaptations.
It’s a tall order for HBO Max to do the best of the bunch, considering the last time out, Michael Mann directed Day-Lewis in the acclaimed film.
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