How Game Of Thrones Creators Ended Up Swapping Star Wars For Netflix's 3 Body Problem
06-03-2024
The news that filmmakers have signed on to direct "Star Wars" movies has largely been met with snide remarks about how long it will be before they abandon the project due to "creative disagreements." Patty Jenkins is currently in the same position as Kevin Feige, Taika Trevorrow, David Benioff, and D.B. Weiss, showrunners of "Game of Thrones," David Benioff, and D.B. Weiss and others have entered the rotating door of signing up to direct a Star Wars for Disney. But they've walked right out again, or found themselves in circles, despite their constant assurances that one day they would walk the whole way through.
D&D's recent press tour, after presumably five years in which they were cooped up in their cabin waiting for "Thrones: The Final Season" to settle, has given journalists a chance to ask them about the vacations that D&D abandoned in a galaxy far far away. They were announced as working on a 'Star Wars' film just before the finale of "Thrones", but left after signing a massive deal with Netflix a few months later.
Benioff, Weiss and others have revealed in recent interviews that they wanted to create a film about the First Jedi. Lucasfilm was not interested at the time, but James Mangold has since been hired to do the exact same thing. Mangold has done the same dance in the past, flirting with directing Boba Fett via a borderline R rated spaghetti western some years back. The pair, looking back on it, feel like everything worked out well
Benioff said to GQ that "Star Wars has shaped our life, but there are so many films and TV shows at this stage." The prospect of turning Liu Cixin’s sci-fi series “The Three-Body Problem” into a television series is even more appealing to these fans.
A new, exciting but dangerous prospect
Being the first one to adapt a sci-fi classic is a great way to avoid being compared with what has come before. Benioff, Weiss, and Peter Friedlander were all intrigued by Liu's novels when Friedlander suggested that they read them shortly after Benioff, Weiss, and Friedlander had signed their contract with Netflix. As Benioff recalled:
It was fresher. It was thrilling to be the first guys to work on something new.
Liu’s novels were adapted into a Chinese 30-episode series, which debuted on Peacock in the month of last year. The vast majority of Western viewers will be experiencing "3 Body Problem" for the first time on television. This could both be a blessing as well as a curse.
If Benioff and Weiss stick to their guns, they could give Netflix a response to rivals who have prestige sci-fi TV shows (like Apple TV+'s "Foundation") that are based on literary fiction. They could poison the water and stop Liu from getting similar treatment for her other works if they fail to do so. This is a very different situation from "Star Wars", where the Mouse House continued to milk the IP regardless of the success or failure of the project.
Rosalind Chao (check the trailer for "3 Body Problem") stars Benedict Wong and Eiza Gonzalez. Netflix will begin streaming the first season of "3 Body Problem" on March 21st, 2024.