Zhang Yimou Updates Three-Body Problem Film at Busan Festival
Director Zhang Yimou revealed ongoing script work for his adaptation of Liu Cixin's 'The Three-Body Problem' while serving as jury president at the 2025 Busan International Film Festival.
Zhang Yimou gave a surprise update on his long-gestating film adaptation of Liu Cixin's The Three-Body Problem on Tuesday at the Busan International Film Festival's opening ceremony. The director disclosed he has spent several years polishing the script for the project and is currently preparing a new film while managing audience expectations.
Zhang Yimou said the novel is a great science fiction work he likes very much. He stated the film is hard to photograph. He hopes they can make the film well and that it will live up to everyone's expectations and satisfy the audience. Zhang Yimou said he would look closely at what viewers want from the film to get it right. Many people spend an entire lifetime wanting to make a truly great film, he noted, yet no one knows where that great film comes from.
Context of the adaptation amid other versions
Zhang Yimou emphasized his adaptation is completely separate from Netflix's English-language series 3 Body Problem, which debuted in March 2024. The source material, Liu Cixin's Hugo Award-winning novel, is the first book in his 'Remembrance of Earth's Past' trilogy. The novel won the Hugo Award for best novel in 2015 in Ken Liu's English translation. It has already spawned other adaptations, including Bilibili's animated series in 2022 and Tencent's live-action series in 2023.
Fan feedback and creative challenges
Once word got out he would direct the film, Zhang Yimou enlisted his team to collect approximately 400,000 online fan comments in one week to help shape his approach. He said audiences today have high expectations of filmmakers. In AI, visual media has become democratized and audience discernment has risen considerably compared to the past. This has caused tremendous pressure on filmmakers. From a Chinese perspective, he said, making a great film might be luck, effort combined with luck. Regardless of luck, the love and passion for cinema in their hearts will always keep burning. Jung Hanseok, who questioned Zhang during the ceremony, noted the announcement of the project stirred as much worry as anticipation. He introduced it as an adaptation of a sci-fi novel with an enormous global readership.
Zhang Yimou's role at Busan International Film Festival
Zhang Yimou is serving as president of the Busan International Film Festival's main competition jury in 2025. He leads a seven-member panel that will assess 13 contenders in the main competition, awarding prizes for best film, best director, special jury prize, best actor, and artistic contribution. This year marks only the second edition of Busan's main competition, introduced in 2025. Zhang noted he was honored to serve on a majority-female jury.
The jury includes Chinese auteur Bi Gan, Korean actor Moon Choi, Japanese director Kei Ishikawa, Korean filmmaker July Jung, Vietnamese producer Tran Thi Bich Ngoc, and Kazakh actor Samal Yeslyamova. The Busan International Film Festival's 31st edition runs through Oct. 15. Jung Hanseok also noted that Zhang Yimou, more than 40 years into his career, still puts out new work almost every year. Zhang discussed with several directors backstage how hard it is to make a good film these days. He hopes the film will live up to expectations and satisfy audiences after years of development and audience feedback collection.
