The authors of the series The Three-Body Problem: Scenes from China were filmed near London

They described for Novinky that the creation of the series The problem of three bodies was not completely smooth. A pandemic entered the process. They were in contact online with the author of the draft for the series, Liu Ch’-Sin, and consulted with him via Zoom.

“We had to find ways to make the plot understandable everywhere in the world. In the book, the author explains all these things in writing. We had to do it differently,” explained DB Weiss for the three-person script team.

After all, they all have years of experience with similar adaptations of literary works, thanks to, among other things, another famous series – Game of Thrones. From this point of view, he belongs to the world’s screenwriting celebrities.

REVIEW: The Three-Body Problem: Sci-fi for all with the necessary compromises. It will not disappoint if you are not expecting a new Game of Thrones

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“Before, we were nervous about meeting Liu Ch’-Sin for the first time. You never know how an author will react to someone editing their themes, their story. In addition, this one really has many layers,” noted the screenwriters, adding that in the case of the Chinese writer, everything went surprisingly smoothly.

“The first thing he told us was that he was a big Game of Thrones fan, that was a good start. He trusted us right away. He also told us straight away that he understands that the literary work has to be adapted for the needs of the series, because it is a different medium. Which is something that not every author will do,” they appreciated Liu Ch’-Sin’s attitude.

They summarized that they practically got a free hand from him to simplify his original characters and plot, so that the material remains attractive also for the upcoming big series, which has the ambition to reach viewers (almost) all over the world right from the first pages of the script.

In addition to the characters – among other things, the Chinese ones decreased, the non-Chinese ones increased – the story itself went through the process of simplification. Significant modifications awaited the scientific passages against the book, including dialogues between experts.

The average episode of the series is only about an hour long, and such things would not fit into it in such a way that even laymen could understand it. However, the screenwriters also tried to keep a certain expertise in the project. “We were thinking about scientists who like these topics,” they added.

They calculated that there are (so far) eight parts, so they had a little around eight hours in total to tell what was originally a large literary story. “If we wanted to keep the main details from the book, we would need about thirty of those hours,” they estimated.

They added that according to the reactions they continuously receive from viewers from all over the world, they quite hit their taste. And that too for those who read the book before watching the first part of The Three-Body Problem.

However, they did not want to reveal whether they are already planning a continuation of the series, a second series. “We hope it will,” they hinted only to Novinky.

On the contrary, they shared more about how the series succeeded in China, where, according to the book, a fateful decision was once made that now threatens modern civilization: “We know that there is a lot of talk and writing about him there. He who wants to see him will find the way.’

And since Netflix is ​​not officially supported in the country, the key scenes of the series, which according to the book are tied to the country and with which the television narrative also begins, could not be created there. They were filmed, as Alexander Woo further revealed to Novinka, in studios near London.

The screenwriters agreed with one of the directors, Derek Tsang, to make them as believable as possible. He, too, insisted that the historical scenes depicting the cruel part of the Chinese Cultural Revolution in the second half of the 1960s be as emotional as possible, so no expense was spared on them.

“Just about anyone who spoke Mandarin played there. But in reality, there weren’t many people on the set who really knew the language. On set, they became the ones calling out the passwords, the others learned them phonetically,” laughed Woo.

For those unfamiliar with the series, he explained that the crowd scenes full of fear are key to the start of the plot. And although the series does not delve deeper into Chinese history, according to its creators, returning to the past is essential, not only for this series.

“We all love history. Even though the three of us have not experienced a similar regime or events, we have read a lot, peeked. That’s why we try to make everything fit in the scenarios. Although we are describing events in China, similar things have happened and are happening all over the world, in different periods,” they concluded.

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