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.”
Yes, yes!!! My favorite episode. Lois Nettleton still rocks my world every time I watch it. Wait... What were we talking about? ;-)
[No Godzirra?]
It’s worse than that!
No Bette Midler!
She was taken out by an Improv shrimp during a softball game!
Look, some liberal labeled it “climate change” - good grief - the Earth’s orbit changed taking it closer to the Sun.
Not “climate change” - lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X28v9JmyTlA
In the film, they eventually accelerate the Earth to a speed of 600 miles per second. To put things in perspective, the energy required for that is roughly equal to all the energy the sun emits in a year.
Totally doable, right?
[ a red giant. ]
Well, that should be easy enough to fix with a tax or something.
Sure, why not.
The question is how long will it take to reach that speed?
If you are in a crisis situation and you only have a few months to do it.
You’re toast (given the movies premise).
The idea of the ‘stellar engines” intrigues me. The article mentions 10 thousand of them. How exactly do they work? How do they attach to the Earth? How do they manage to pull or push the Earth away from the Sun? How do they manage this without stopping the rotation of the Earth (which in of itself would be catastrophic)?
The Star Wars franchise has been completely wrecked by political correctness. The Chinese have a huge opening if they can figure out their audiences.
Been a long time since I saw it. So the Earth was moving away from the Sun.
Cool.
I suppose, literally.
I don’t know, most Americans are too lazy to watch a movie with subtitles.
Most dubbed Chinese movies I have seen are almost unwatchable. Even the movies that were described as classics.
“As someone has already noted, “Space: 1999” was just as silly.”
Never watched that.
Reading sub-titles is a pain though.....the few Chinese ones I've attempted isn't worth the aggravation so I never get thru them.
The only way I can think of to make this work is to somehow attach the “Stellar Engines” to the Moon and use it as a Gravity Tractor. This would require starting and stopping the engines at precise times in the moon’s orbit. I can only guess that this might change the moon’s orbital with who knows what detrimental effects.
The only thing is that I can only guess that this would take hundreds or thousands of years to accomplish.
There is also of course the hazard that you could rip the Moon out of Earth orbit (another catastrophe).
Out in China, they are allowed real science, not this political garbage.
This reminds me of the famous sci fi novelist, Edward E ‘Doc’ Smith, who wrote the classic space opera series Skylark of Mars and The Lensmen.
Its a shame Hollywood couldn’t have done this, nope their long term agenda is something else.
And in all honesty i am interested in this film and would look forward to getting an English dubbed Bluray or 4K version.
Dubbing is awful
Subtitles much better
Good news! The Earth isn't going to burn. The bad news: It is going to turn into a solid ball of ice. And hey, it's not a ripoff of 1999 okay.
A win-win for Netflix?
Not if it’s still shedding subscribers like my cats do their fur...
I’ll pass.
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