Amazon Plans Blockbuster TV Series Based On Chinese Sci-Fi Trilogy 'The Three-Body Problem' (medium.com)

hackingbear writes from a report: Amazon is reportedly likely to earmark $1 billion for a television series (Warning: source paywalled, alternative source) based on the ultra-popular Chinese science fiction trilogy The Three Body Problem. The American video subscription service will likely acquire the rights to the Yugo-winning, extremely popular trilogy of novels written by Liu Cixin and produce three seasons of episodes. The rights to the trilogy are currently owned by Lin Qi, the chairman of Youzu Interactive, a Chinese developer and publisher that typically focuses on online and mobile games.

Comments

Yugo winning

[Anonymous Coward]

Is Yugo the Chinese version of the Hugo award?

Re:Yugo winning

[_Sharp'r_]

Who cares if it won a Yugo? I mean, sure, a small Yugoslavian car as a prize is impressive, but who really cares?

HUGO

[Anonymous Coward]

The Three Body Problem won a HUGO award: http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/2015-hugo-awards/

Re:HUGO

[Salgak1]

See the "Sad Puppies" story. SF Fandom has diverged into factions: a "Literary" faction (which sometimes refers to itself as 'Trufandom'), which currently pretty much controls the Worldcon, the Hugo Awards, and the Nebula Awards, and a "Spaceships and Rayguns" faction (notionally, the Puppies. There are two major factions in the Puppies as well). It's getting to the point that the two factions have different cons, different preferred publishers, and distinct communities. The split is also fairly ideological, with the Trufen faction trending left, and the Puppy faction trending right

Quick guide:
Cons:
Trufen: WorldCon, Wiscon, ReaderCon
Puppies: DragonCon, LibertyCon, RavenCon, LTUE

Publishers:
Trufen: TOR, Orbit
Puppies: Baen, Castalia

Awards:
Trufen: Nebulas, Hugos
Puppies: Dragons

This is not an all-encompassing list. There are also favored blogs and associated communities. . .

Will Amazon whitewash?

[Anonymous Coward]

Main protagonist characters are Chinese. The antagonists are not Chinese.

Re:Will Amazon whitewash?

[Anonymous Coward]

Normally I'm pretty uninterested in the issue (particularly with Animes, where generally the original Japanese audience isnt that concerned by it). But this would be a mess if reset into the west. Part of what makes the book so interesting is just how different the chinese world of the protagonists is. The opening chapter set during the cultural revolution would make no sense at all in america or europe. Even eastern europe had a pretty different experience with Stalin than china did with Mao.

Re: it's NOT a "TV series", ffs.

[cyber-vandal]

It sounds good and I will definitely watch it on my 55in streaming.

Re:What Now?

[Stephan Schulz]

I don't read much sci-fi any more, but I like to think I at least know of the major authors. I've never heard of this person, or series,

Then you live under an SF rock. It was/is a major bestseller.

Or even that Chinese sci-fi was a thing.

There is about 2 times as many Chinese as Europeans and USians combined. They probably have a good dose of everything we know of ;-). This was one of the rare cases of a breakout into the West.

Anyone can comment on what they thought of it, or what the basic premise is, given TFS doesn't say anything about that? I presume it takes place beyond Earth, given the title.

I only read the first part ("The Three-Body-Problem"). It basically has three main strands of action - one set during the Chinese cultural revolution, one in the here and now, and the third describing an alien civilisation in what is hinted to be the Alpha Centauri system. Since this is a ternary star system, movement of the alien's planet is chaotic, and they have to deal with alternating periods of (hard to predict) stability and wildly fluctuating climate, destroying all or most of their civilisation over and over again. The aliens are communicating with Earth, and most of their story is told via parables in a video game.

It is an impressive read, and certainly different from much western SF - in a good, or at least interesting way.

I am hooked after this:

[mapkinase]

Answer the following question without your typical deceit: Between the years of 1962 and 1965, did you not decide on your own to add relativity to the intro physics course?”

“Relativity is part of the fundamental theories of physics,” Ye answered. “How can a basic survey course not teach it?”

Re:What Now?

[AmiMoJo]

It will be interesting to see if Amazon tries to change the setting to the west. The novel deals with events that are well known in China but which most people in Amazon's markets have never heard of. Plus, there is a reluctance among TV execs to have a Chinese lead with a cast of Chinese actors.

Obligatory Yugo jokes

[Ecuador]

At an auto garage:
-Hi, I'd like an exhaust for my Yugo.
(after several seconds of deep thought on the part of the mechanic)
-OK, sounds like a fair trade...

-How do you double the price of a Yugo?
-You fill it up with gas. (that's petrol in the UK)

-Why does the Yugo come with rear windshield heaters?
-To warm the hands of the people pushing it.

Agree with nearly 100% of you said

[aepervius]

The only thing I would remove is this : as opposed to "a "Literary" faction" and puppies I view both puppies : the left puppies and the right puppies both pushing an agenda of their own. Both have at time applauded literary work for reason other than pure literature, be it gender promotion or whatever. If you ignore both of them and judge work on their own literary merit, you are better off.

After having read the some of the controversial "book" the right puppies accused the left puppies of pushing, I could agree at least on some point, that some were obviously pushed for reason other than literature, I can remember one about transgender issue I found the writing so poor I could not see why this book was promoted for Hugo novel. But the same way hold the other way around the right puppies having so obnoxious agenda pushing that you gotta vomit.

In the end my recommendation is : ignore both puppies, ignore the gender or sexuality of an author, enjoy the story and writing. Only the story content should matter. Which is why I am still reading Orson scott card in spite of its view , I just refuse to pay money for it and loan it from library ;-), and this is why I am still enjoying call of cthulhu in spite of lvoecraft ebing an obnoxious mysoginistic racist.

Re:First "The Martian" then this!

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd love to see a billion dollars spent on The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons.

Re:What Now?

[tehcyder]

Book 1 is just the warmup. The trilogy ends with the heat death of the universe.

Jesus fucking Christ have you never heard of spoiler alerts?