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Netflix Buys Rights To Stream Chinese Sci-Fi Blockbuster 'The Wandering Earth' (npr.org)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via NPR: Netflix announced this week that it has acquired the rights to stream Chinese sci-fi blockbuster "The Wandering Earth," which has already grossed more than $600 million globally and hit number two in the all-time Chinese box office rankings since it was released in theaters Feb. 5. Netflix will translate the movie into 28 languages and release it in more than 190 countries. The movie, based on a short story by Hugo award winner Liu Cixin (author of "Three Body Problem" and "Ball Lighting") is set in a distant future in which the earth is about to be devoured by the sun. Using propulsive engines, humans turn earth into a spaceship and try to launch it out of the solar system and the planet is saved by a Chinese hero (rather than American ones as typically seen in Hollywood sci-fi movies.)
For China's film industry, the release marks a major milestone. "Filmmakers in China see science fiction as a holy grail," Raymond Zhou, an independent critic, told The New York Times. "It's like the coming-of-age of the industry." Two sci-fi movies, "The Wandering Earth" and "Crazy Alien," which is also inspired by Liu's work, topped this Chinese New Year movie season. Inkoo Kang wrote at Slate that the film "understands what American blockbusters are still loath to admit: Responding to climate change will pose infrastructural challenges on a massive order and require drastic measures on a planetary scale. Perhaps it takes a country like China, which is accustomed to a manic rate of construction and grandness of organizational possibility, to seriously consider how dramatically humanity will have to reimagine our ways of life to survive such a catastrophic force."
For China's film industry, the release marks a major milestone. "Filmmakers in China see science fiction as a holy grail," Raymond Zhou, an independent critic, told The New York Times. "It's like the coming-of-age of the industry." Two sci-fi movies, "The Wandering Earth" and "Crazy Alien," which is also inspired by Liu's work, topped this Chinese New Year movie season. Inkoo Kang wrote at Slate that the film "understands what American blockbusters are still loath to admit: Responding to climate change will pose infrastructural challenges on a massive order and require drastic measures on a planetary scale. Perhaps it takes a country like China, which is accustomed to a manic rate of construction and grandness of organizational possibility, to seriously consider how dramatically humanity will have to reimagine our ways of life to survive such a catastrophic force."
We could have made movies out of Niven novels at any time in the last three decades with similar "big engineering sci-fi wow" scenarios. A World Out Of Time springs to mind.
I've read Three Body Problem and found it terse and unremarkable. I must be getting too old to "get" new stuff, or read so much all I see is recycled ideas.
Mostly random stuff.
which leads to wars...
Stop with the limited geographical borders BS
You are not better or worse than anyone else due to the place you where born or your ancestry....
GET OVER IT
dubbed like anime?
They're always portrayed as asexual in Hollywood...
You mean the Marvell/DC movies? That is a legacy of the comic books, and Comics Code Authority, more than Hollywood.
and the planet is saved by a Chinese hero (rather than American ones as typically seen in Hollywood sci-fi movies.)
(or Indian ones as typically seen in Bollywood movies)
(or Japanese ones as typically seen in Japanese movies)
(or French ones as typically seen in French movies)
(or Nigerian ones as typically seen in Nigerian movies)
(etc)
Sci-Fi allows to handle sensitive topics in the current Chinese society in a way that doesn't concern the conservative censorship, just like it did here in the other side of the world. As a sci-fi fan I can't wait to see what they transfer to the film next, and if they experiment with the deeper characterization and emotional motives than is the tradition in the Chinese movies.
I don't know if anyone else saw the movie and would like to discuss it here. I watched it about 2 weeks ago in the theater.
I was pretty impressed with the first opening scene, and the final scene where the dad [plot spoiler, etc]. Those scenes had the music, pacing, narrative that seemed like it was to the quality and emotional sophistication of like Ridley Scott or someone similar.
However, much of the middle of the movie was low brow explosions, unbelievable story line, and cheap humor like it came out of the ass of Michael Bay or something. Such a schizophrenic movie production. Worth streaming though I think.
Reminds me of Space: 1999, where the moon got ejected from its orbit after the explosion of nuclear waster stored on its surface.
Totof
- I'm no scientist (at least in this domain), but I guess that when the earth gets eaten by the sun, mars would become quite hot. Wo what's the point getting there ? - as read in some other comments, I doubt there will be any human at the time. Which reminds me something said by Bill Nye I think, something like : we will never go to mars and teraform it, because we are not able to take care of our own planet.
Totof
This is why we need to colonize Mars, so when the sun swells into a red giant, we can survive the earth being devoured. Mars funding needs to be a top priority, before it is too late.
A few billion years ago, "we" were single celled organisms. Likewise, a few billion years from now, "we" will be a completely different species, in the unlikely event that our genetic line still exists then. Why should we care about this remotely related species, when we don't even care about animals going extinct today, who are much closer related to us ?
And "too late" is a huge joke. We've only been making rockets for a century. We can easily spend the next million years perfecting them before attempting to settle on Mars. Either we will get more advanced, making the job easier, or civilization will collapse, saving us a lot of wasted effort. Win-win.
But the spacecraft can't support that long flight time. I believe that the future world can reach this level.
I don't remember Integral Trees well enough to opine on its suitability as a movie, but I've wanted a Ringworld movie for quite some time...
Are there any movies that have even had that concept, or a Dyson sphere in it? I can't think of any. Seems like there must have been some movie that had something on that scale, even if just in passing...
Mote in God's Eye would be really great as well. So much you could mine from classic SF.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
And "too late" is a huge joke.
Oh dear. You tripped over the answer and still did not see it.
In other words, wwwoooossshhh!!!
Antimatter....
Good-bye
See the old movie "Gorath". An interesting Japanese flick where the earth is moved with giant rockets to avoid a planetary collision.
I tried every decent and legal way I could think of to resolve the issue w/the business before I rented the chicken suit
Oh dear. You tripped over the answer and still did not see it.
That's because most people who say that are completely serious.
That's because most people who say that are completely serious.
Poe's law in action? But that equally says I could be the one mistaken :)
In Space: 1999 it was the moon that was blasting around the universion. As sci-fi shows went, the acting and plots were ok, but I could never get over the utter stupidity of the premise. No, you are not going to drive around the universe on a planet.
On the Earth, just think what happens to the oceans when you accelerate. *slosh*
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
I could go for that. In fact, wouldn't it be a nice idea to have one of those $1.000.000 prizes for creating a more-or-less self-contained garbage dump cleanup 'mechanism'? A bit like Wall-e on steroids? Little robots that sift through garbage, other 'robots'/machines to clean it if necessary and sort it. Include some disassembling robot machines that can handle GSMs, TVs, computers, refrigirators etc. These complex elements could also be collected from the dump for processing elsewhere. No need to have everything in one place. Even a partial solution would already be nicer that what happens with the garbage now. (a bit like that ocean cleanup boom they designed for the Pacific Garbage Patch. Sure, it is not perfect. Far from. But it sure is better than just ignoring the problem like we humans seem to be fond of doing...)
In the eyes of the public, scientists are often not good sci-fi movie audiences, they will pay too much attention to the scientific details in the film, and can not enjoy the story. But I want to defend this sentence. Apart from the cinema, how many opportunities does the scientist have to observe a future world? What's more, only good science fiction movies can lead people to think about the scientific problems behind them. The crappy science fiction movies are just crappy movies, and "Wandering Earth" is undoubtedly an interesting film that will cause scientists to think. But we need to know that it is a very bold and imaginative idea to remove the whole earth as a spaceship when the entire human crisis is facing, although from a scientific point of view, human capabilities in the foreseeable period. can not achieve. But film as an art, it is not entirely a complete reproduction of life or science, so although this film contains many unscientific imaginations, we still need to applaud. Science is the driving force for human progress, and imagination has pointed the way for human progress.
This Liu Cixin sounds like the brothers Strugatsky of China.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
Why is there no "like" button here? Give you a "like"~
You mean exactly as the US have? I think the US is much better at telling lies and pushing propaganda into the world.. So before starting pointing fingers, look to yourself.
What a novel notion - a Chinese SF thriller would have a Chinese hero, unlike American SF thrillers, which have...American heroes....
Yeah, we're supposed to be really surprised that Chinese movies have Chinese heroes, and be really appalled that American movies have American heroes.
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Just watched the trailer and I still have no idea what it is about. From some scenes it seems like the earth is some sort of spaceship (even more ridiculous than the campy Space: 1999), but in most of the trailer everything looks like very near-future. Plus the effects seemed uneven between trailer scenes, so I don't know what to expect there either. Not sure if its worth a watch, perhaps stick with what Chinese cinema does best (comedic fantasy stuff like the 2013 Journey to the West?).
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
The book is much better, unfolds on a more realistic time scale, has a much more believable twist leading to people being unfairly persecuted. Totally hated the Hydrogen explosion at Jupiter saving the Earth in the movie.That said a great first try by China at a big budget Sci-Fi, as good or better than the average American big budget Sci-Fi. Not China's 2001, more like China's Armageddon.
Please China don't mess up The Three Body Problem (they've already shelved one failed attempt). Despite a comment in another thread. The Three Body Problem is the best Sci-Fi trilogy I've read in 40 years. The book Wandering Earth pails to insignificance compared to TTBP.
Letter To Iran
Thank you. I remember seeing it when I was a kid. And it was the first thing that came to mind after hearing about this Chinese movie.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
Yeah, but Chinese films have lots of American heroes: Ming-Na Wen, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Donnie Yen, etc. We traded them for Bruce Lee! They weren't born here like Arnold, Van Damme, Bruce Willis, or Statham but all are American heroes. Thou some might consider them British due to when the actor was born.
Why should we care about this remotely related species, when we don't even care about animals going extinct today, who are much closer related to us ?
Because there is no "we". The human race does not act as one, does not make rational decisions based on some overall plan or guiding principal.
Given how humans nearly screwed up this planet and can't really be trusted not to completely break it somehow, those of us with a bit of vision and desire to see humanity survive should make an effort to get to Mars and live up there.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I like THHGTTG, but I always wondered why "telephone sanitizers" didn't fall into the "workers" category.
#DeleteFacebook
What??? Not a strong woman hero? Is there no Chinese Brie Larson available?
Sigh.... Racism, amirite? Why would they need to take a completely gratuitous snipe there?
It's a Chinese Sci-Fi movie for crissakes. It would be friggin' weird if the hero wasn't Chinese.
If we're playing identity politics, Garret Wang very often played the hero in ST-Voyager.
But of course, American media is consumed with racism and sexism in the guise of anti-sexism and anti-racism.
Now to the movie - I am pretty stoked to see a Sci-Fi movie from a different culture. It's on my must see list.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
I knew the original game was set on a Ring, but was any of the video content set there? All I can remember was Forward Unto Dawn which I could have sworn was set on a planet. Was there some other movie?
There's a live action TV show coming out, but for me I was thinking mostly of movies...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Will not watch. Just like I try to boycott films which have Chinese financial backing.[...]
I just bought a whistle for dog training.
You sure did! And then you posted it on Slashdot. Tell us more about your dog whistle.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
You sure did! And then you posted it on Slashdot. Tell us more about your dog whistle.
It's not made in china, it's nickel over brass, and I used it as an illustration of what I'm doing to put a scratch, however superficial, on companies who sold out their production to china to make a buck. I'll be using it to help a friend deal with his new Yorkie. But of course, I know you just be trollin', I"m just humoring you.
That's my point. If one objects to a certain way of doing business, do not support those businesses that do it that way.
Same with the movies. China-financed? Not interested.
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
Stanley Schmidt told a very similar sotry in "The Sins of the Fathers", and "Lifeboat Earth"...and, although I haven't read the short story or seen the series described here, I suspect he did a better job of it.
There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet.
What's good for the goose .....
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
Boycott Chinese culture, Chinese brands, Chinese fooda
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
Obviously, just a movie, there is a bunch of racial discrimination jumping out.
Some people like a lemon, they can smell a sour smell across the screen.
A poor pity that has been blinded by hatred.
a poor worm living in the world of his own fantasy
If there is no evidence, what is the difference between this and fantasy? You like to worry about what you fantasize all day long. Really a poor worm
Who do you think you are? "Hurt Them"??? Are you going to laugh at me? You are an adult, and you still feel yourself like a child?? the center of the universe?? Why are you so naive? Hahaha is so funny, hahahahaha.
Let's begin movies rating on Slashdot. :)
Will $CURRENT_YEAR be the year of the Linux Desktop?