The original Lewis and Clark expedition saw all sorts of problems as the two explorers made their way through the Oregon Territory. Bad weather was an ongoing concern. The same has been true when it comes to HBO's panned miniseries about the epic journey. The network will indeed continue production on the project after a delay, but they’ll be waiting until spring to get going again.
It was only a few weeks ago that HBO announced that they were halting production on their Lewis and Clark miniseries, blaming bad weather due to wildfires in Calgary as one of the major reasons. Now, Deadline is reporting that, since the potential of filming in Calgary in the winter is not a particularly appealing concept, they’re just going to hold off on moving forward until the spring. A spokesman for HBO said:
As we looked at the schedule for Lewis and Clark and assessed the winter weather challenges ahead, we decided to remount the production in the spring.
While August in Calgary can be a comfortable place to hangout and shoot a movie (when the air isn’t filled with smoke), that is really not the case as we get into fall and winter. It snows, and it gets cold. Like really cold. It was a rough enough trip for the people who actually took it in 1804, so there's no reason to risk the health and well-being of the cast and crew in 2015.
A spring date will hopefully be plenty of time for HBO to deal with the other reason that they had to cease production earlier this month: a lack of director and director of photography. Both the project's director John Curran and head of photography Rob Hardy have left the miniseries due to creative differences. Obviously, this is also working into the spring return date. If HBO had found replacements by now, they might have been able to at least get some filming done sooner, but by the time they get those key crew positions filled, it will likely be too cold to do any filming this year anyway.
The series' two leads, Casey Affleck (Meriwether Lewis) and Matthias Schoenaerts (William Clark) are both still on board to play the famous pair. The story will be based on Stephen Ambrose’s book about the life of Meriwether Lewis, Undaunted Courage. While the book is centered on Lewis, the miniseries looks to be focused on the expedition itself, so the two men will likely be equals in the final product. Although there’s no word if the final project will contain any Epic Rap Battles, we’re guessing not.
HBO brings out all the stops when it comes to their series and movies, and we expect Lewis and Clark to be more of the same. HBO seems committed to getting this project done, so we look forward to seeing it once that happens.
