If you spent any time in a middle school classroom over the last fifteen years, you probably know Samuel Collier. He’s the defiant, street-smart orphan from Elisa Carbone’s Blood on the River: James Town 1607. It’s one of those rare historical fiction novels that actually sticks with you. You remember the salt sores, the hunger, and the constant, vibrating tension between the settlers and the Powhatan Empire.
Naturally, everyone wants to know: where is the Blood on the River movie?
We live in an era where every popular young adult novel gets a limited series or a big-screen adaptation. We've seen it with everything from The Hunger Games to the recent Percy Jackson reboot. Yet, for a book that is a staple of the Common Core curriculum and a favorite for historical fiction fans, the path to the screen has been surprisingly quiet.
Let's be real for a second.
The film industry is weird. A project can be "in development" for a decade and never see the light of day. Or, a producer can option a book—meaning they buy the exclusive rights to make a movie out of it—and then just sit on it until the contract expires. This happens way more often than you’d think.
Why Fans Are Clamoring for a Blood on the River Movie
There is a specific kind of grit in Carbone's writing that feels cinematic. Think about the opening scenes. You have Samuel, a kid with nothing to lose, stealing his deceased mother's locket. It’s high stakes immediately. Then he’s thrust onto a cramped ship, the Susan Constant, headed toward a "New World" that is anything but welcoming.
Hollywood loves a "coming-of-age" story set against an impossible backdrop.
The relationship between Samuel and Captain John Smith provides a perfect mentor-protege arc. It isn't the sanitized, Disney-fied version of the story we saw in Pocahontas. It’s dirty. It’s violent. It’s honest about the fact that many of these settlers were completely unprepared for the reality of the Virginia wilderness.
People want to see the "Starving Time" rendered with the same intensity as a survival thriller like The Revenant, but through the eyes of a child.
The Complicated Reality of Historical Adaptations
Making a Blood on the River movie isn't as simple as casting a few kids and finding a forest. There are massive ethical and logistical hurdles.
First off, there’s the representation of the Powhatan people. In 2026, you cannot—and should not—make a film about Jamestown without significant involvement from Indigenous consultants and actors. Carbone did a massive amount of research to ensure her book was historically grounded, citing primary sources like Smith’s own journals and the work of archaeologists at the Jamestown Rediscovery project. A movie would need to uphold that same standard of accuracy.
Budget is the other killer.
Period pieces are expensive. You need ships. You need a full-scale replica of the triangular James Fort. You need hundreds of authentic costumes that look lived-in and filthy, not like they just came off a rack at a Halloween store. Unless a major studio like A24 or a streamer like Apple TV+ puts up the cash, a project like this risks looking cheap. And nobody wants a cheap-looking version of a story they love.
What Elisa Carbone Has Said
While there isn't a confirmed release date or a greenlit production currently filming in the Richmond area, the author hasn't been silent about the possibility. In various school visits and interviews over the years, Carbone has expressed openness to an adaptation.
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The demand is clearly there. If you look at platforms like Goodreads or TikTok's "BookTok," there are endless "fan casts" for a potential Blood on the River movie.
- Samuel Collier: Fans often suggest actors like a younger Jacob Tremblay (back in the day) or more recent breakout child stars who can handle "grumpy but vulnerable."
- John Smith: This needs someone with presence. Someone who can be both an arrogant leader and a genuine survivalist.
- Reverend Hunt: A character who provides the moral compass, requiring an actor with gravitas.
Comparing Blood on the River to Other Jamestown Media
We haven't been completely starved of Jamestown content, but nothing has quite hit the mark that Blood on the River sets.
Take The New World (2005), directed by Terrence Malick. It’s a visual masterpiece, sure. It’s poetic and dreamy. But it’s also slow and definitely not aimed at the younger audience that grew up reading Samuel's story. It focuses heavily on the romance—or the myth of it—between Smith and Rebecca (Pocahontas).
Then there was the Jamestown series that aired on Sky/PBS. It was more of a "soap opera in the wilderness" type of vibe. It focused on the "maids for maids" who arrived in 1619. It was entertaining, but it lacked the specific survival-horror and character growth that makes the Blood on the River movie such a sought-after project.
Carbone’s book is unique because it centers on the work. The actual, back-breaking labor of surviving. Tying thatch. Cutting palisade logs. Learning to communicate. That’s the movie people want to see.
The Impact of Archaeological Discoveries on a Future Film
One reason a movie might actually be better now than ten years ago is that we know so much more about the site.
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The team at Jamestown Rediscovery, led for years by the late William Kelso, has unearthed the actual footprint of the fort. They found the "Starving Time" pits. They found evidence of what the settlers actually ate (and it wasn't pretty). Any director taking on a Blood on the River movie today would have a literal mountain of physical evidence to use for production design.
We now know exactly where the first church stood. We know what the blacksmith shop looked like.
This scientific backing adds a layer of "prestige" to a potential film. It moves it from "kids' adventure movie" to "historical epic."
Why Now is the Time for the Blood on the River Movie
The "history" genre is having a moment.
Look at the success of Killers of the Flower Moon or even the Shogun series. Audiences are hungry for stories that don't sugarcoat the past but instead look at it with a modern, more nuanced lens.
Blood on the River fits this perfectly. It doesn't make the settlers out to be perfect heroes. It shows their incompetence, their internal bickering, and their often-disastrous interactions with the native population. But it also shows Samuel’s personal redemption. It shows a boy who learns that "standing on one's own two feet" actually means knowing when to rely on others.
How to Support the Creation of an Adaptation
If you’re a fan and you’re tired of waiting, there are actually things you can do. The film industry is driven by "proof of concept."
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- Keep the buzz alive on social media. Producers look at engagement. When a book title trends on TikTok or X (formerly Twitter), people in Los Angeles notice.
- Support historical fiction that is getting made. The more successful "serious" historical dramas are, the more likely a studio is to take a chance on a Jamestown project.
- Check for updates from the author's official channels. Elisa Carbone's website is the best place to find legitimate news rather than rumors from "leak" accounts that often make things up for clicks.
Honestly, the Blood on the River movie is one of those projects that feels inevitable. It’s too good of a story to stay on the page forever. Whether it ends up as a gritty feature film or a high-budget limited series on a platform like HBO, the foundation is already there. The dialogue is practically written. The "sets" are already designed by history.
Until that first trailer drops, we always have the book. And maybe that's okay for now. Sometimes the movie in our heads is better than anything a studio could produce, but in the case of Samuel Collier, he deserves to see his story on the big screen.
Practical Steps for Fans and Educators
While waiting for a formal announcement about a Blood on the River movie, you can engage with the story in more immersive ways.
- Visit the Real Site: If you're anywhere near Virginia, go to Historic Jamestowne. Seeing the actual James River—the same river Samuel looked out over—changes how you read the book.
- Explore the Primary Sources: Read excerpts from John Smith's The Generall Historie of Virginia. You’ll see exactly where Carbone pulled her inspiration and realize just how much of the "crazy" stuff in the book actually happened.
- Follow the Archaeology: Keep up with the James River YouTube channel or the Jamestown Rediscovery blog. They are constantly finding new artifacts that bring Samuel's world to life.
The story of Jamestown is a story of failure, survival, and the complicated birth of a nation. It's a story that deserves the most accurate, respectful, and thrilling adaptation possible. Whenever the Blood on the River movie finally arrives, it has the potential to be a definitive piece of historical cinema.