David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, who co-created the George R.R. Martin–inspired HBO series Game of Thrones, will be adapting Chinese SF novelist Cixin Liu’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy for Netflix, according to Deadline.
Liu’s trilogy includes the Hugo Award-winning The Three-Body Problem (2006), The Dark Forest (2008), and the Locus Award-winning Death’s End (2010). All three books received Kirkus Stars for their English-language translations, and two of those were by American SF writer Ken Liu (no relation), who’s a Hugo-, Nebula-, and Locus- winner in his own right. (Cable network AMC has an animated drama series based on several Ken Liu stories in the works.)
Cixin Liu’s trilogy tells a complex tale involving a threatened invasion of Earth by a distant, technologically advanced alien civilization. Kirkus’ review of The Three-Body Problem noted that “in concept and development, it resembles top-notch Arthur C. Clarke or Larry Niven but with a perspective—plots, mysteries, conspiracies, murders, revelations and all—embedded in a culture and politic dramatically unfamiliar to most readers in the West.”
The author and Ken Liu will be consulting producers on the new Netflix series, which will be written by co-executive producers Benioff, Weiss, and Alexander Woo, who co-created the AMC show The Terror: Infamy. Other co-executive producers include Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson and Oscar-nominated actor Rosamund Pike of Gone Girl fame. It’s unclear if the latter will play a character on the show, as no casting news or prospective release date was announced at this early stage.
David Rapp is the senior Indie editor.
