With its expanded, more racially diverse cast and more advanced VR games, Netflix’s new 3 physical problems The series unfolds in a very different way than the book it is based on. Liu Cixin’s novel was so rich and dominated by internal dialogue that it was generally considered unsuitable for the screen.When translating a complex story like this, changes are almost always needed 3 physical problemsis cross-media (and in this case cross-language).But when I recently spoke with executive producers David Benioff, DB Weiss and Alexander Wu 3 physical problemsAt the premiere, they said that while they always knew their story needed to be different, as they began to reimagine the narrative beats, they realized “there had to be a back and forth” between the show and Liu’s book.
In Liu’s book, a handful of brilliant Chinese physicists are left to their own devices to figure out why scientists around the world are killing themselves and what’s causing the world’s particle accelerators to malfunction in inexplicable ways. Although the characters in the book initially work in isolation, the arrival of a mysterious VR game gradually draws them into each other’s orbit. As they grow closer, the horrific truth facing the entire world becomes clearer.
The Netflix show tells a largely similar story, but its relatively large cast of protagonists come together so much faster than their book counterparts that you don’t spend as much time watching them figure things out for themselves. Liu uses the characters’ inner thoughts to help readers understand the book’s more abstract ideas about technology and how society might be organized differently, focusing more on the fate of future generations.
Internal dialogue doesn’t always make for the most interesting viewing experience, which was one of the biggest challenges Benioff, Weiss, and Wu faced when they began breaking down the script. 3 physical problems Research is underway on how best to use these scenes from the book to make a great TV show. In many cases, the answer ends up being to do things completely differently.
“Some things work well on the page because I’m inside this person’s head and I know exactly what he’s thinking,” Benioff said. “But when I pulled that scene off the page and put it on the screen, I couldn’t understand what he was thinking. I needed to find other ways to understand his thoughts and motivations than just putting them in writing on paper come out.”
Liu uses characters like Wang Miao—a professor haunted by visions of a glowing countdown that only he can see—to explore the feelings of fear and confusion that arise when faced with threats like the one at the center of his novel . Netflix 3 physical problems Recasting Wang as five different characters, their shared friendship is a big reason why they basically solve problems together from the first episode. Relationships are also part of Liu’s story, albeit to a much smaller extent. But Wu explained that the decision to separate Wang’s characters also stemmed from a desire to give audiences an emotional footing to latch on to.
“With these books, the protagonists usually don’t cross paths,” Wu points out. “They have their own separate storylines, and sometimes they just disappear and never come back. But from all our experience adapting books into TV series, we think the core of any great series that makes you uncomfortable is characters. That’s what makes you want to watch the next episode and make sure you’re counting the days until the next season.”
Wu believes it’s important to keep all players on board “because that’s what will push us through the series” as it becomes increasingly sci-fi and fantasy. 3 physical problems Do.
“When all these crazy things happen, you get emotionally involved in it,” Wu said. “So not only do you get to watch a ton of amazing effects, of which there are a lot, you can also understand it from an emotional standpoint.”
Because Netflix 3 physical problems Having spent so much time fleshing out its characters and their dynamics, it feels almost as if the show’s true story — one that stretches further into the future, beyond Earth — was only just beginning at the end of season one. Netflix has not yet announced whether it plans to renew 3 physical problems Additional seasons will delve deeper into Liu’s Remembering Earth’s Past Trilogy. But Benioff said that if that happens, he and his collaborators are ready — “[we] We want to spend the next five or six years bringing them to the screen. It’s a pretty strong feeling. “