Why didn’t Hollywood make “The Three-Body Problem”? Liu Cixin said American blockbusters are clearly black and white

The sci-fi stage play "The Three-Body Problem II: The Dark Forest" premiered in Shanghai recently. The original author Liu Cixin attended the event. During the interview, a reporter asked: "Why not give the copyright of the "Three-Body Problem" series to Hollywood for production and filming?"

Liu Cixin replied: "Hollywood commercial blockbusters must be black and white. The story can be complicated, but the theme cannot be complicated. The Three-Body Problem clearly violates this principle. At the same time, the values ​​of Hollywood blockbusters must conform to the mainstream values ​​of the public, and the Three-Body series is not the case. The theme of The Three-Body Problem is complex and not black and white. It is difficult to explain it in one sentence, and the values ​​do not conform to the current mainstream values. Therefore, it is not that it cannot be filmed if it violates these two commercial film rules, but for a high-cost blockbuster, the risk is too high."

To sum up, the rules of Hollywood blockbuster movies are:

1. The theme is concise and the characters are clearly divided into black and white

2. Conform to the values ​​of the current mainstream public

In the "Three-Body" series, a three-body civilization was summoned by a signal from humans. They planned to invade the earth, but the human beings on earth were divided into two factions, one advocating resistance and the other advocating dependence on the three-body civilization. Before the three-body people arrived on earth, the two factions of human beings had already started a contest. Afterwards, there was a more advanced civilization in the universe that wanted to destroy the Milky Way. Such a story is indeed rare in Hollywood science fiction films.

Therefore, there is still a long way to go before "The Three-Body Problem" can be adapted into a film or TV series, so long that it may be closely related to the development of the Chinese film industry.

Liu Cixin also mentioned the path of Chinese film industrialization in this interview. He said: "Chinese film industry has not yet established a complete industrial system. This industrial system must be established first. At the same time, the film industry also needs to cultivate talents in various fields. For example, there are very few science fiction screenwriters now, so we need to adapt science fiction novels. Unlike Hollywood, there are many mature science fiction screenwriters. This is just one aspect that is lacking."

During the Spring Festival this year, Liu Cixin's novel "The Wandering Earth" was adapted into a movie and released in mainland China, earning a total of 4.6 billion yuan at the box office, creating the second best box office result in Chinese film history. It is also the No. 1 science fiction film at the box office in China. Of course, there have been no science fiction films with such high box office before.

The "film industry system" mentioned by Liu Cixin is simply a weak industrial foundation in the field of film production. During the production and filming process, Guo Fan, the director of "The Wandering Earth", even the armored protective clothing worn by the actors in the film had to be custom-made abroad, and the preparation of costumes and props in the early stage took a long time. If it were in Hollywood, the production of costumes and props for science fiction films would be very mature and the time spent would be relatively short.

However, "The Wandering Earth" has made a good start, and the establishment and improvement of China's film industry system does need to be accelerated.