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Zhang Yimou revealed Tuesday that his adaptation of Liu Cixin’s science-fiction epic “The Three-Body Problem” is still in script development, years after he announced it. He spoke at the opening ceremony of the Busan International Film Festival, where he presides over the main competition jury.
“It’s hard to photograph,” Zhang said of the novel from the stage of the Busan Cinema Center. He said his team has spent several years polishing the screenplay and hopes the finished film will meet audience expectations. To guide the rewrite, his staff gathered about 400,000 online fan comments about the book and its earlier screen versions.
The update is rare. Zhang first announced the project at the Shanghai International Film Festival in 2024, and news has been sparse since. He gave no start date for filming, no cast and no release window.
The director faces a difficult source. Liu’s novel spans centuries, shifts between virtual and physical worlds and relies on scientific concepts that resist simple staging. An earlier Chinese film version, backed by Youzu Pictures, was shot in 2015 but was postponed indefinitely after internal company shuffling and reports of a poor first cut.
Zhang’s festival role keeps him busy. He leads a seven-member jury that includes director Bi Gan, actress Moon Choi, directors Kei Ishikawa and July Jung, producer Tran Thi Bich Ngoc and actress Samal Yeslyamova. He called the panel’s majority-female makeup a rarity at leading festivals and said he was honored to serve.
The jury will judge 13 films in the competition, now in its second year, and award prizes for best film, best director, special jury prize, best actor and artistic contribution. The prizes carry $80,000 in cash. Under new Academy rules, the best film winner can enter the Oscars’ international feature race without further qualification. The closing ceremony takes place October 15.
Jury members also took questions about “The Assassin(s),” the Korean thriller whose cast and crew pulled out of the festival after a political backlash over its depiction of the 1974 attack on President Park Chung-hee.
