Directed by French director Jean-Jacques Annaud, the Chinese-French co-production features a Chinese student who is sent to Inner Mongolia to teach shepherds and instead learns about the wolf population, which is under threat by a government apparatchik.

With a production budget of US$38 million, Annaud filmed Wolf Totem in Inner Mongolia, where the book is set, for over a year.

[7] Its CEO Zhang Qiang approached Chinese directors to adapt the book, but filming humans with real wolves was considered too challenging.

[8] In 2005, the corporation entered an agreement with New Zealand director Peter Jackson and his company Weta Digital to co-produce a film adaptation.

[9][10] Production with Jackson did not take place, and Beijing Forbidden City struggled to find a new director to film the adaptation.

[citation needed] Jiamin and his friends at the production company were familiar with Annaud's films and approached the director for the task.

[15] Annaud filmed Wolf Totem in Inner Mongolia, the region of China where the book is set,[5] near the town of Wulugai.

[8] The website China.org.cn reported, "The director and his team had to overcome harsh difficulties in the wild, such as low temperatures, extremely bad weather, [and] mosquito swarm attacks.

"[14] To preserve the grasslands, Annaud had his crew walk to locations with the equipment wherever possible, avoiding use of vehicles, despite the slower process making production more costly.

[17] Annaud said one of the most challenging scenes was depicting a pack of wolves attacking horses during a blizzard in the middle of the night.

[8] The filmmakers hired Scottish animal trainer Andrew Simpson to raise and train the wolves,[21] which ultimately numbered 35.

Simpson moved from his ranch in Canada to China to train the wolves to sit, snarl, and fight on cue.

They had a diet of dried dog food and chopped chicken, but during training, Simpson fed them "ruby red cubes" of fresh meat.

[citation needed] French director Jean-Jacques Annaud filmed Seven Years in Tibet (1997), which is banned in China.

[8] Variety said it was ironic for China Film Group, which is state-backed, to produce Wolf Totem while Seven Years in Tibet was still banned.

[5] Annaud said in 2012 that he was mistaken in assuming that it was acceptable to cover historical conflicts in retrospect, like with France, Algeria, and the Algerian War.

Reuters said, "[The film] deals with conservation themes head on, though it largely avoids the book's more subtle political issues.

[24] In January 2015, Entgroup cited Annaud's involvement with Wolf Totem as part of a trend that European directors were turning to China instead of Hollywood.

"[26] The Hollywood Reporter said with Wolf Totem's debut, "Execs are keen to learn about France's expertise in pacting with the world's second largest film market."

[28] Wild Bunch held a private screening of the film at the 7th UniFrance Rendez-vous for distributors who bought rights and for interested German buyers.

The consensus states: "As a visual experience, Wolf Totem boasts thrills that compensate for the significant narrative sacrifices made in bringing Jiang Rong's novel to the screen.

[36] Maggie Lee, reviewing for Variety, said, "Despite its magnificent natural vistas and some pulse-pounding action in stunning 3D, 'Wolf Totem' boils down to a familiar environmentalist allegory that doesn't move or provoke too deeply."

Lee said Jean-Marie Dreujou's cinematography "rivetingly conveys" the wolves' primal behavior but that the film failed to authentically dramatize the friction between humans and animals.

She found the film to lack any "new perspective to environmental themes long expounded on in the West" and that the screenplay "considerably softened" the devastation and led to a weak conclusion.

Lee commended the visual effects of the wolves in motion and composer James Horner's score for its "strong emotional sweep" in non-dialogue scenes.