David Benioff and D.B.Weiss (Game of Thrones) will develop The Three-Body Problem for series at Netflix, according to Deadline. The TV series is the first project from Benioff and Weiss since the duo’s eight-season run of HBO’s Game of Thrones. It is the first major project of Benioff and Weiss’s overall Netflix deal.
The science-fiction drama is an adaptation of a trilogy of books by Chinese author Liu Cixin (Ball Lightning), via Deadline. The Three-Body Problem trilogy chronicles humanity’s first encounter with an alien race. The books consist of Remembrance of Earth’s Past, The Dark Forest, and Death’s End. According to Deadline, the initial book follows Ye Wenjie, a woman who finds herself aiding the arrival of aliens to Earth after her father is murdered by the government.
“I have the greatest respect for and faith in the creative team adapting The Three-Body Problem for television audiences,” Cixin said via Deadline. “It is great honor as an author to see this unique sci-fi concept travel and gain fandom across the globe and I am excited for new and existing fans all over the world to discover the story on Netflix,” Cixin said according to Deadline.
Along with Benioff and Weiss, the series will be executive produced by Alexander Woo (The Terror: Infamy), Rian Johnson (Knives Out, Star Wars: The Last Jedi), Brad Pitt’s Plan B production company (The Departed, Moonlight), and Rosamund Pike’s (Gone Girl, Radioactive) Primitive Streak, according to Deadline. Woo will also write the script. Cixin joins as a consulting producer along with author Ken Liu (The Grace of Kings) who penned English versions of two books in the trilogy.
“It’s a privilege to be adapting one of the great masterpieces of Chinese science-fiction, ” Woo said via Deadline. “The Three-Body Problem trilogy combines so many things I love: rich, multi-layered characters and true existential stakes – all told as an elegant and deeply human allegory,” Woo said via Deadline.
“Although it may seem like a familiar premise — the story of humanity’s first contact with an alien civilization — Chinese author Liu Cixin’s ability to interweave science with fiction made his vision of the future and extra-terrestrial contact feel more realistic than any other science fiction I’ve read,” Peter Friedlander, VP of Original Dramas at Netlfix said via Deadline. “Since my earliest days at Netflix working on series like Black Mirror and Sense8, I’ve sought out stories and POVs that are singular. This story felt singular, special — and eminently relatable,” Friedlander said via Deadline.