Special correspondent for this newspaper Luc
The Netflix version of " three-body " (picture ①) has continued to attract attention after it was launched recently. Although the show is directed by a Hollywood gold medal producer, the substantial modifications and compression of the original work have made Many fans of the original work still find it difficult to accept it. If you count the IPs adapted and remade by Netflix over the years, you will find that the streaming media giant has been exploring and adapting works with commercial potential around the world, and there is a precedent for "magic modification". For Netflix, regardless of whether the series is successful in the end, the purpose is to attract topic attention and attract new users.
"Season 2 will be better than Season 1"
As one of the most important science fiction works this year, Netflix put all 8 episodes of the first season of "The Three-Body Problem" online at once, using the hot discussion it triggered to continue to attract traffic and users. , currently ranked second on the popular TV series list. In order to let more people know about the creativity of this science fiction work, Netflix even bought the right to use the "Dome Theater" of Las Vegas Internet celebrities, and used this giant advertising space to play the series's logo gag "You are all bugs" . With
’s global response and successful IP effect, coupled with the investment of US$160 million in the first season, the creators of the series certainly do not want to give up. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, they made it clear that they hope for a sequel. And "Season 2 will be better than Season 1." Producer David Benioff said: "This is exactly what we are discussing with Netflix. Liu Cixin created an indelible trilogy, and I think the content of the books is getting better and better, and the second part is better than the second one." One was much better, and the third one surprised me even more. The story is getting bigger and bigger, a huge leap forward, and if we can create a second season, it will reach new heights."
In the opinion of Benioff and other creators , the original work of "The Three-Body Problem" is so large that the series will basically take four seasons to fully cover it. But for the Netflix platform, the high production cost of the show is a major difficulty - the budget of US$20 million per episode is the company's highest investment in a drama series in history, and it also puts a lot of pressure on Netflix. After all, Netflix is a streaming media company built on algorithmic data. They need to calculate the ratio of input and output. Whether there will be a sequel to "The Three-Body Problem" depends on whether users will "press the play button." According to the industry media "Screen Roar" website, the most criticized thing about Netflix before was that its production content was too trivial. If it could insist on producing a heavyweight culture like "The Three-Body Problem" that stands at the "height of human civilization" products, will hopefully improve the reputation of the platform.
"Globalization" + "Localization"
Netflix has not yet announced whether to renew "The Three-Body Problem" for a second season, but Benioff and others have already started follow-up adaptation work as planned. For this kind of adaptation based on a famous IP and with huge fans of the original work, streaming media companies usually judge whether to continue development based on a combination of traffic and word-of-mouth. For example, "Foundation" produced by Apple TV+, even though the first season was also involved in controversy, considering the high traffic brought by the show, a second season was still released.
looks back at Netflix’s previous IP adaptation projects, whether they are live-action series and movies of Japanese anime, or fantasy works with a mass base in Europe and the United States, such as “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and “The Witcher” (Figure ② ), they have also experienced a change from the early days of "doing it if there is no date" to now taking the needs of fans of the original seriously.
Compared with testing IPs from Asia, it is safer to adapt fantasy works that already have a popular base in Europe and the United States. Netflix's "The Witcher", which will be broadcast in 2019, comes from Andrzej Sapkovsky's "The Witcher". "The Witcher" series of fantasy novels, the original works and adapted games are very popular, and the invitation of "Superman" Henry Cavill to star has attracted fans to watch, and the first two seasons have indeed received good broadcast traffic.
However, by the third season in 2023, the level of the show has plummeted. Not only has the performance become mechanical and stiff, but even the plot has gradually deviated from the original work. Coupled with the rumors that Cavill is about to resign, the reputation of "The Witcher" has been ruined. It's getting lower and lower, and many fans have expressed their intention to abandon the show.Another live-action version of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" adapted from the classic popular animation, after its launch in February this year, the reviews can only be considered satisfactory. While the audience affirmed its realistic CG special effects, they also said that the four characters in the play The country failed to inherit the essence of the original "Kung Fu" and only clumsily imitated the settings and moves.
's "collection" of Japanese animation IPs has been one of Netflix's "globalization" strategies in recent years. By making these highly popular animations real-life, Netflix has attracted a large number of animation fans and young viewers to browse, and In the process, try to "localize" the adaptation.
When Netflix adapted " Death Note " in 2017, it transplanted the work of Japanese cartoonist Takeshi Obata to Seattle, USA, and also used black actors to play the male protagonists in the book. Although this move is ostensibly to pursue "political correctness", it does not change the relevant settings based on the male protagonist's skin color. Instead, it greatly compresses the plot, deleting details while adding a lot of flaws, which makes many "Death Note" "Fans of the original novel are both disappointed and angry. In the end, the Netflix version of "Death Note" only received an ultra-low score of 26% on the Rotten Tomatoes website, and there will be no sequel.
Cultural "Drainage"
"Network's failed adaptations of "Death Note" and "Cowboy Bebop" broke the common belief that comics are easier to adapt to the screen." The "Screen Rant" website reviewed Netflix in detail over the years Which comic works have been "under the knife"? In addition to the 2017 live-action version of "Fullmetal Alchemist ", 2021's "Cowboy Bebop" is also a failure case of "the higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment".
"Cowboy Bebop" has been well-received in both its comic and animated versions, and its creative background is still based on Western pop culture elements such as bounty hunters and space science fiction, so it should be easy to adapt. However, this series, starring the Asian "Star Trek" actor John Zhao, only reproduced the scenes, characters and soundtrack from the animation, but the plot stumbled.
In addition, "Cowboy Bebop" still failed to solve the harshness of the action scenes in the series, as well as the ethnic and skin color issues brought about by the live-action. What is most criticized by fans of the original work is that the live-action version has lost the indelible sadness in the animation and has become a routine Hollywood work. Based on the lessons learned from these works, when Netflix announced that it would make "One Piece" a live-action version (Picture ③), the general audience and comic fans were generally not optimistic. After all, the world of One Piece written by Oda is extremely grand, with many characters and strange imagination. It's not easy to achieve real-life reality. Netflix also learned from its failure. This time, it faithfully restored the work according to the original work without any "magic modifications". It was finally recognized by anime fans and ordinary viewers, and received a super high freshness of 85% on the Rotten Tomatoes website. An analysis by
"Screen Roar" website believes that the reason why the live-action version of "One Piece" was successful is that it did not make drastic cuts like "Fullmetal Alchemist", nor did it change the characters and background beyond recognition like "Death Note" , "Those added dramatic elements are meaningless. What Netflix has to do is to listen to the voices of fans of the original work, and while using a live-action version to increase authenticity, do not try to take away the 'anime feel'." After "One Piece", Netflix launched the live-action version of "Yu Yu Hakusho" at the end of last year. It continued to respect the original plot and did not "magically change" the main plot and characters. The progress in the action scenes was also well received.
In fact, when Netflix invests in these IP adaptations and remakes, it mainly provides funds and platforms to give creators greater freedom. People like Benioff, the producer of "The Three-Body Problem", etc. The Hollywood industry veterans who produced "Game of Thrones" for HBO at least ensured commercial feasibility and maturity. This is also Netflix's most basic requirement for entertainment products as a streaming media.
Of course, from another perspective, Netflix's investment in Japan's "One Piece" and China's "The Three-Body Problem" is also a positive operation of cultural "drainage" for Western mainstream audiences. As long as the original works are not misinterpreted, this will be good for communication. There are benefits to both good work and the culture and knowledge behind it.After the Netflix version of "The Three-Body Problem" became popular, the English version of Liu Cixin's original novel and the popular science literature "Silent Spring" that appeared in the drama have both appeared on Amazon's best-selling book list. Many viewers will go to the book to find the content in the drama. Deleting or magically changing parts is also a good thing for contemporary science fiction literature. ▲
