Posted on 02/21/2019 8:00:19 PM PST by Simon Green
One of the biggest movies in the world right now has already surpassed half a billion dollars at the box office in China without even having completed its second week of release yet. That puts the movie, Wandering Earth, on par with some of the biggest big screen titles to emerge from the US in recent years, like Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War.
The movie, a sci-fi epic that tells the story of people trying to save earth from being destroyed by the sun, is already the second-highest grossing film in China ever. Which should explain why Netflix just snatched it up, in a deal that will introduce the film to an even wider audience via the popular streaming giant.
The streamer didn’t share any other details about the arrangement, like how much it paid or when the film will start streaming. But it’s still a big announcement, for multiple reasons.
For one thing, this will help acclimate global audiences to Chinese-produced fare. It’s also a win-win for Netflix — which, while it doesn’t sell subscriptions inside China, is nevertheless making a push to appeal to global Chinese audiences. In addition to this film, Netflix is also developing its first Chinese-language original TV series.
As far as Wandering Earth goes, it’s definitely an understatement to say a ton of work went into this blockbuster. According to Netflix, the film was given a production scale rarely seen in Chinese films and included post-production and special effects work that took two years. That included more than 10,000 specifically-built props and the employment of some 2,000 special effects shots, in addition to a “substantial amount of computer graphics shots.”
“Audiences from over 190 countries will soon meet The Wandering Earth on Netflix,” the film’s director Frant Gwo said in a statement about the news, also raving about Netflix’s plan to translate it into 28 languages. “I am glad that our movie can reach to people from different parts of the world. This is a Chinese movie created for the world, and it has been positively received since its premiere. We are very excited about it.”
According to a plot summary from Netflix, the movie is set in the distant future and involves the sun expanding into a red giant that threatens to destroy earth. A team of heroes builds “ten thousand stellar engines” to propel earth out of the solar system in the hope of finding a new home in space, kick-starting a 2,500-year-long journey in which humanity fights for the survival of their “wandering earth.”
Wouldn’t it be funny if Chicom films, void of social jussie themes, became bigger hits than then standard Hollyweird crap?
Oh, the "science" in it is laughable, no question...but I don't know that we're in a position to waggle our finger at them. After all:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armageddon_(1998_film)
Woke and bespoke! Woke and bespoke!
Sounds sort of like the ole BBC series, Space: 1999.
OOOoooooo, yet another destruction of the earth.
That’s all some people think about, I can’t think of a more boring exercise.
In this one I guess China is the only survivor.
Get outta here.
I have to like Armageddon. They filmed scenes at NASA-JSC when my father worked there (got in a few scenes as an extra.) Simon Green, sci fi author of that name who wrote a great series (Deathstalker). I need to read those again.
In fairness, while the characters are (quite understandably) Chinese, it's the "United Earth Government" running the show.
I can't get past the bad science. I very much prefer "Deep Impact".
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/01/nasa-uses-the-movie-armageddon-in-their-management-training-program/
Today I found out that NASA uses the 1998 film, Armageddon, in their management training program.
It turns out, to absolutely no one’s surprise, that this is not because it’s an incredibly well thought out movie in how to stop an asteroid from hitting the earth… No, they use it because it contains over 168 distinct things that are impossible (not just improbable, but impossible. there are many many more if you want to talk about improbable). Because of this, it makes for a great exercise in seeing how many of those things their staff can recognize, both the impossible things and the improbable.
.......
Phil Plait said it best “Here’s the short version: Armageddon got some astronomy right. For example, there is an asteroid in the movie, and asteroids do indeed exist. And then there was… um… well, you know… um. Okay, so that was about all they got right.”
LOL! That’s great! My father complains more about the Gravity movie being inaccurate. When I visit, I do not watch space related movies with him... not if I want to enjoy them.
I can't speak for their live action films, but I know that anime style TV series produced in China and exported to the Japanese market are usually terrible, with nonsensical or throwaway plots.
There was a lot of consternation in China when Kung Fu Panda came out (which did very well there) asking how could a US animation film studio create a better China-themed story than they could.
I actually like "Gravity", although I couldn't help but notice a rather glaring mistake in the plot. As pointed out in TV Tropes:
The space shuttle, the International Space Station, and the Chinese Tiangong are all within spitting distance of each other, despite really being in vastly differing orbits. The Tiangong is "100 miles" (in one line; "100 kilometers" in another) from the ISS, a figure which evidently stays stable in this film. Of course, if the movie was following the real-life distances and orbits however, Stone would have never survived. Cuarón stated in an interview that an early draft of the script did try to work with the fact the HST, ISS, and Tiangong were in different orbits in reality, but it ended up with half the movie being the characters explaining orbital mechanics, so the decision was made to put them all in the same orbit for plot convenience.
No Godzirra?
Right continent...wrong country. :-)
“A team of heroes builds “ten thousand stellar engines” to propel earth out of the solar system in the hope of finding a new home in space, kick-starting a 2,500-year-long journey in which humanity fights for the survival of their “wandering earth.””
Talk about suspension of disbelief.
LOL
Don’s finest hour and a half.
As someone has already noted, "Space: 1999" was just as silly.
***The movie, a sci-fi epic that tells the story of people trying to save earth from being destroyed by the sun**
Strange, but I remember an episode of TWILIGHT ZONE doing something like this, till then end and the truth is revealed.
Talk about suspension of disbelief.
My thoughts exactly
And unnecessary.
You only need to move the Earth beyond the orbit of Mars to get it in to the new Goldilocks zone.
If you leave the Solar System you also leave the protection of the Sun’s magnetic field. All life on Earth would end by sterilizing radiation if not freezing to death first.
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