Caleb’s Crossing (novel by Geraldine Brooks), is will be making its way on screen, as Radar Pictures has confirmed their rights to film this piece. 

The original piece is written by “Pulitzer Prize winning novelist” Geraldine Brooks. Narrator of the book, young Bethia Mayfield, meets Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, a Wampanoag native. Mayfield’s father tries to convert the Wampanoag tribe, which leads to the tribe shaman’s interest in educating Caleb. Within a year, Caleb is studying Latin and Greek in Cambridge, with the colonial elite.

For the film adaptation, Booboo Stewart, best known for his role on Twilight as Seth Clearwater, will be starring in the lead role as Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck. 

“I am very honored to be a part of this project and so proud we can bring Caleb’s amazing story to life,” Stewart shared in a statement.

Stewart will also work to produce, along side of Chris Eyre. 

“Telling this story of Native American history and the major accomplishments of Native Peoples is paramount to “our story” as Americans. Booboo is the perfect lead that will take us to new frontiers together,” Eyre stated.

Eyre’s debut film, Smoke Signals, claimed the Sundance Film Festival Filmmakers Trophy and Audience Award, along  with winning “Best Film” honors at the 1998 American Indian Film Festival.

Others on this project include executive producer, Ted Field, of Radar Pictures. Field has spent 30 years in the film industry. He’s worked on over 60 films such as Jumanji, Amityville Horror, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. 

The film adaptation to the novel, will focus on Caleb, a young member of the Wampanoag tribe. Inspired by his love for his tribe and home, Caleb will battle to  “survive the tides of English colonialism.” Follow Caleb, as he fights to bridge the cultural gap. And, becomes the first Native American to graduate from Harvard University.

Below are a few reviews of the original novel by Brooks. Read to get excited for the motion picture premier of this wonderful story!

“A dazzling act of the imagination. . .Brooks takes the few known facts about the real Caleb, and builds them into a beautifully realized and thoroughly readable tale…this is intimate historical fiction, observing even the most acute sufferings and smallest heroic gestures in the context of major events.” —Matthew Gilbert,The Boston Globe

“Brooks filters the early colonial era through the eyes of a minister’s daughter growing up on the island known today as Martha’s Vineyard…[Bethia’s] voice – rendered by Brooks with exacting attention to the language and rhythm of the seventeenth century – is captivatingly true to her time.” —The New Yorker

“Original and compelling. . .[Brooks’ characters] struggle every waking moment with spiritual questions that are as real and unending as the punishing New England winters.”—Paul Chaat Smith, The Washington Post