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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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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