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Actress Zhang Jingchu in YooZoo’s 2015 adaptation of Three-Body Problem that was never released. (Picture: Handout)
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New Three-Body Problem movie gets acclaimed director of Monkey King: Hero is Back

  • The director behind one of China’s most beloved animated films is tasked with bringing The Three-Body Problem to the big screen
  • Multiple adaptations of the acclaimed sci-fi novel by Liu Cixin have been in the works for years
Cinema
Xinmei Shen
Xinmei Shen
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China is finally getting a movie adaptation of the bestselling sci-fi novel The Three-Body Problem… again. The book that’s been praised by former US president Barack Obama and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has a new adaptation coming with director Tian Xiaopeng at the helm. The critically acclaimed director is best known for the animated film Monkey King: Hero is Back.

Multiple adaptations of the book by author Liu Cixin have been in the works for years, but only a stage play has gotten a public release in China. YooZoo Pictures currently holds the film rights for the book, but an adaptation it made in 2015 was never released. Tian’s studio October Media said in an announcement posted on Weibo that it will be producing the new adaptation with the support of YooZoo Pictures and Beijing Enlight Pictures.

Fans of the book series -- called the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy -- had mixed reactions to news online. Some expressed skepticism about a studio that specializes in animation making a live-action film. Others also suggested China’s film industry isn’t developed enough to handle the book’s epic scope. But some also appear excited about the new adaption, noting the impressive track record of Tian’s production team.

There’s currently scant information about the new film. No release date or cast has been announced. But other adaptations remain in the works, including an animated series and a live-action TV series. So perhaps people will have a chance to see the story on the small screen before its cinematic debut.
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