The celebrated auteur will tackle a Chinese-language feature adaptation of Liu Cixin’s bestselling book.
The celebrated auteur will tackle a Chinese-language feature adaptation of Liu Cixin’s bestselling book.
Liu Cixin‘s bestselling sci-fi book The Three-Body Problem is set for another screen adaptation, with the legendary Zhang Yimou set to direct a Chinese-language film based on the novel.
News of the feature adaptation, and Zhang’s involvement, was revealed Sunday during a forum at the Shanghai International Film Festival, the news agency Xinhua reported. At SIFF, Wang Changtian, chairman of Beijing Enlight Media, said his company was in the early stages of developing the project. Three-Body Universe Cultural Development Co., Ltd, the copyright holder for the book and related media, also confirmed the project was in the works.
Zhang is widely considered China’s greatest living filmmaker. A key figure in China’s Fifth Generation of filmmakers, he is best known for his films Raise the Red Lantern, Red Sorghum, To Live, Hero and House of the Flying Daggers, and he also directed the memorable opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
In just the past year and half, the 72-year-old Zhang has released three films that have collectively earned $1.15 billion in China alone. His recent period comedy thriller, Full River Red, produced by Huanxi Media, was China’s top-grossing movie of 2023 with a staggering box-office haul of $634.6 million. He followed that up with the Beijing Enlight Pictures’ crime drama Under the Light, also released in 2023, which earned $190 million. And he was back again near the start of 2024 with the Chinese Lunar New Year release of comedy-drama Article 20, produced again by Enlight and earning $323.6 million.
The Three-Body Problem, the first book in Cixin’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, has spawned several adaptations across different media since its release in 2014, although with mixed success. A prior Chinese-language adaptation of the book directed by Fanfan Zhang was never completed, but a Chinese TV adaptation by Tencent, titled Three-Body, did make it to the screen in 2023, and streamed on Peacock earlier this year.
In the west, the best-known adaptation is Netflix’s big budget take, restyled as 3 Body Problem, that was helmed by Alexander Woo and Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. The Netflix adaptation debuted in March to positive reviews and was renewed for a further two seasons.
More to come…