The next big project for Game of Thrones series creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss will take them out of the fantasy genre and into science fiction for a Netflix series based on Liu Cixin’s trilogy of novels known as The Three-Body Problem.
Benioff and Weiss, who co-created the hit HBO series Game of Thrones and served as showrunners and writers on the project throughout its eight-season run, will serve as writers and executive producers on the adaptation of The Three-Body Problem along with Alexander Woo (The Terror: Infamy). Also involved with the project will be Star Wars: The Last Jedi writer and director Rian Johnson, who will also serve as an executive producer along with Brad Pitt and Rosamund Pike.
Originally published in China in 2008 and then translated into English for publication in 2014, The Three-Body Problem series consists of three novels that chronicle Earth’s interaction with an alien civilization inhabiting a nearby solar system. The neighboring system includes an Earth-like planet that alternates in orbiting around three different stars and repeatedly has its population wiped out due to the rapid changes in planet temperature created by its place in the system.
When a message from Earth reaches the alien planet, humanity braces for an impending invasion from the alien world.
The award-winning series was one of the most popular literary projects in the science-fiction genre for China, with Ken Liu translating the books to English. It went on to become the first Asian novel to win the prestigious Hugo Award for science-fiction literature. Both Liu Cixin and Ken Liu will serve as consulting producers on the series.
“Liu Cixin’s trilogy is the most ambitious science-fiction series we’ve read, taking readers on a journey from the 1960s until the end of time, from life on our pale blue dot to the distant fringes of the universe,” Benioff and Weiss said in a statement to Variety. “We look forward to spending the next years of our lives bringing this to life for audiences around the world.”
The Three-Body Problem is the first of several projects to come out of Benioff and Weiss’ blockbuster deal with Netflix, which forced them to exit a planned project in the Star Wars universe. There’s no word on when The Three-Body Problem will begin production.
