THE THREE BODY PROBLEM: Netflix Taps Slate of A-List Producers to Adapt Chinese Sci-fi Epic TV Series

Netflix to Adapt Chinese Sci-fi Epic The Three Body Problem Into a TV Series

Netflix has tapped a slate of talented producers to adapt Liu Cixin‘s Hugo award winning SciFi novel The Three Body Problem, including Game of Thrones creators David Benihoff and D.B. Weiss; Rian Johnson, director of The Last Jedi and Knives Out; and Alexander Woo, co-creator of The Terror: Infamy.

The Three Body Problem will be the first big drama that Benihoff and Weiss will write since their hit HBO series ended last year. The creative duo is putting together a lengthy slate of partners to write and produce including Johnson, Woo, Rosamund Pike, and Robie Uniacke through their production company Primitive Streak. Similar to Game of Thrones, The Three Body Problem is a high concept science-fiction and political drama book series; so Benihoff and Weiss will be treading familiar ground, and hopefully their experience with the production struggles during the later seasons of Game of Thrones will help them to make better decisions this time around.

That being said, it seems like with so many executive producers, this production may have too many cooks in the kitchen, not to mention issues with Netflix meddling in the production so as to avoid angering the Chinese regime with a realistic portrayal of the extermination of political rivals and minority ethnic groups during the Cultural Revolution (1966 to 1976). As Alexandra Alter writes in The New York Times Magazine even Liu couldn’t escape self-censorship in the original novel, having to downplay the inhumanity of the revolution he directly experienced as a child to avoid the watchful eye of the censors. Liu has even stated he prefers the English translation of his book, which was reedited to be more in line with his creative vision.

Liu seems like a talented writer having been decorated with many literary awards and nominations over his three decade career with one of his novella having been given a film adaptation just last year, so I’m looking forward to reading his books myself. But I’m afraid I can’t shake the feeling that his introduction to Western audiences is going to be riddled with controversy or perhaps worse: that it won’t. I understand that Liu is under a lot of pressure from the Chinese Communist Party; but that doesn’t excuse his apologia for the CCP’s ethnic cleaning and concentration camps for Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang Province, going so far as to argue in an interview with Jiayang Fan of The New Yorker, “Would you rather that they be hacking away at bodies at train stations and schools in terrorist attacks? If anything, the government is helping their economy and trying to lift them out of poverty.”

Sadly, this is to be expected from someone who can be thrown in prison for slighting their government, but I find it inexplicable that Netflix refuses to even acknowledge the conflict of interest inherent to this production much less make a statement condemning these atrocities. I’ll be watching the show carefully when it comes out to see whether Netflix will allow Benihoff and Weiss to confront these hot button issues directly or sweep them under the rug in shameful cowardice. But I’m not feeling optimistic.

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