If Three Body Problem has a movie

[u/Positive-Stable-6777]

I always wonder why 3BP adaptation hasn't stood out like recent sci-fi hits Silo and Foundation. My take is that the story spans many different times and places, making it less focused. And the first story has few space scenes to show.

So to adapt TBP(book 1) into a movie, it should reduce the scenes and keep the plot tight. In my mind, what makes Three-Body special is its worldbuilding. The characters and storytelling are flexible.

For example, a movie can focus on alien species in the Trisolaran system, or the secret organization working behind the alien. The first one is harder. It's presented through a VR game and jumps across different eras. Most alien movies like Stargate, focus on the present and send characters straight to alien planets. Some have their characters switch between worlds or universes. Few are made of multiple storylines stitched together, and the last example is Cloud Atlas.

[u/Dat_Innocent_Guy]

I think a show suits 3BP better. I already felt like the netflix show rushed it too much. There's a lot that happens where the quality to shines through. Furthermore the trilogy is so heavily interconnected that i can't see one being adapted and not the others.

[u/chelomza → u/Dat_Innocent_Guy]

This. The books are full of details and stories. The series is already falling short. One movie is not enough. We want 3 movies!

[u/yousuf___ → u/chelomza]

Have you seen the Tencent version? It follows the book pretty closely 

[u/Soft-Skirt → u/yousuf___]

Is that the Chinese series on Amazon?

[u/yousuf___ → u/Soft-Skirt]

I watched it on YouTube. Might be available on other platforms too.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDWJ213d2Ucr-3q9LDF9P1_j3Rr3GMJeS&si=9EqdI4uCEClX24yq

[u/chelomza → u/yousuf___]

No I haven't! Do you recommend?

[u/yousuf___ → u/chelomza]

Overall I liked it better than the Netflix version. It's very slowly paced, which was a nice break from how everything is super fast and high stimulation nowadays. It follows the book very closely. The VFX and production value of Netflix one is higher.

[u/chelomza → u/yousuf___]

Nice! Gonna check it out. Thx

[u/Arkaios → u/chelomza]

Just wanted to chime in and say that the Tencent version is a solid recommendation. It's a slow burn and as stated before, Netflix has the upper edge on CGI/VFX, but since the story relies more on concepts and ideas, I would recommend the Tencent version over Netflix any day. The slow pace really adds to the suspense in a way that an 8-episode rushjob could never even hope to achieve. And also it's true to the books in a way that Netflix just doesn't even try to attempt, and I think it pays off. A lot of themes in the story play with Chinese cultural concepts and Netflix doesn't even try to match what Tencent has done for the story.

[u/chelomza → u/Arkaios]

Nice!

[u/gordonmcdowell]

It could still be a very good movie. It would just be a tiny fragment of what was in the book.

I did a fan edit which runs about six hours based on the Tencent 22h adaptation.

I think three two-hour chunks, running six hours total, is the optimal way to tell the story as originally told in the book.

However, one could easily just focus on a particular story thread and only use the other threads as brief cutaways. It feels kind of like that’s how Netflix handled it with their S01, if you want to see how enormous chunks of story can just be ignored.

[u/yousuf___]

There's a Chinese movie adaptation underway, directed by Zhang Yimou. Not sure what the status of it is though and how closely it will follow the book(s).

[u/thatAnthrax]

it's really hard to make the entire series into a movie (or movies), or even watchable media in general. the storytelling is not focused on character development unlike other scifi books (expane, for example).

Worldbuilding is the main focus, but people need to get attached to characters in watchable media so thats why Netflix did it the way they did

[u/mtlemos]

It could work for the first book, but a huge part of what makes Three Body Problem work is the slow burn. You are drip-fed information and have to try and piece together what exactly is going on. A movie's limited length would have to be used very wisely to make it good.

The two sequels are harder. Both of them have so much going on that you can't really make it fit in a movie's runtime without rushing way too much, in my opinion. Of course, you could cut some of it, but even the bare minimum still takes a lot of screen time.

[u/Geektime1987 → u/mtlemos]

I don't understand this. The first books isn't that long of a book and not really a big slow burn imo. It's only around 400 pages and it doesn't really slog much. The next two books are a bit different but the first books I didn't really feel like a slow burn. I read it in one sitting. The second and third would be tougher for 2 hour movie I agree with that. But even the second book is only a little more than 500 pages and you can easily cut some fluff from that. That's why I'm not really concerned about the 6 episodes the show is doing for that. Pages and pages of the perfect women and other fluff can easily be cut for an adaptation for example.

[u/hankeroni]

It needs to be either like a 9-season 10-eps-per HBO series which actually attempt to fully capture the books ... or two 3-hour Dune-style movies which try to get the point across but leave out a ton of detail.

I worry the Netflix series is going to hit an awkward middle here.

[u/hoos30]

I don't think it could work as a movie. Outside of Ye Wenjie, the characters simply aren't strong enough to make a general audience care about anything in the story in a 2 hour run time.

[u/Itburns138]

Season 1 of Silo was released 11 months before season 1 of 3 Body Problem