Amazon May Adapt The Three-Body Problem—A Much More Exciting Idea Than Their Lord of the Rings Prequel

According to The Financial Times, Amazon is circling the rights to Liu Cixin’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, more commonly known as the Three-Body Problem trilogy from the title of its first book. The Three-Body Problem was a massive bestseller in Liu Cixin’s native China, and thanks to an incredible English-language translation from Ken Liu, it was also a huge success in the U.S. It won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel, and even then-President Obama read and positively reviewed it.

The reported price tag for the rights? $1 billion.

For those who haven’t read The Three-Body Problem, here’s the Amazon summary: “Set against the backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion.”

China’s YooZoo Pictures has been working on a multi-film adaptation of The Three-Body Problem trilogy since 2014, and they told Chinese news outlets that they’re still the only rights-holders for film and TV adaptations. However, their own adaptation seems to be caught in production hell, and they didn’t clarify whether they might be in talks to partner with Amazon.

I loved The Three-Body Problem, and I think it could lead to the kind of surreal visuals and intersecting stories that would make for truly unique and compelling television. It played so cleverly and beautifully with computers and digital spaces, in a way that I think television has yet to embrace, and it balanced its most outlandish moments with more grounded human drama. If adapted well, I feel like it could definitely break through.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Tolkien, and I hope Amazon does something intriguing with all that mythos. However, an adaptation of The Three-Body Problem has the potential to be truly special and fascinating—the sort of timely and stunning show that could capture the public imagination in the way that Amazon so clearly wants.

That said, is it worth $1 billion dollars? Maybe if I could even conceptualize that large an amount of money, I would be better suited to tell you. My instincts tell me that Amazon would be overpaying, but I also thought they overpaid for the Lord of the Rings series with a reported $200-250 million for just the rights. So clearly I’m no studio executive.

What do you think, though? Do you think The Three-Body Problem could work for Amazon? Or do you think it’s too difficult to adapt?

(via io9; image: Tor Books)

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