Reese Witherspoon studied with a Matabele tribe in Africa to perfect the Bushman language her character uses in the film.
The movie started production with René Manzor as director. About three weeks into filming, he was fired, along with cinematographer Pal Gyulay and several other crew members, after Disney executives viewed the initial dailies. Amongst other things, the footage was severely out of focus. This was blamed on both Gyulay (who was described as "in over his head" and "out of his league") and the production's older set of Panavision anamorphic lenses.
Executive producer Kathleen Kennedy originally asked Mikael Salomon to take over as cinematographer (she had shown him an early draft of the script, which he loved, while they were working together on Always (1989), and he asked her to remember him if there was a chance for him to shoot it). However, Steven Spielberg pushed for Salomon to be offered the job of director, knowing that he had been wanting to move from cinematography to directing for some time. After accepting, Salomon asked Juan Ruiz Anchía to be the new cinematographer, and rush-ordered a set of Panavision's newer, sharper Primo anamorphic lenses.
Executive producer Kathleen Kennedy originally asked Mikael Salomon to take over as cinematographer (she had shown him an early draft of the script, which he loved, while they were working together on Always (1989), and he asked her to remember him if there was a chance for him to shoot it). However, Steven Spielberg pushed for Salomon to be offered the job of director, knowing that he had been wanting to move from cinematography to directing for some time. After accepting, Salomon asked Juan Ruiz Anchía to be the new cinematographer, and rush-ordered a set of Panavision's newer, sharper Primo anamorphic lenses.
Honeysuckle Weeks was originally cast as Nonnie. But after Steven Spielberg was no longer involved with the project Honeysuckle was replaced with Reese Witherspoon.