Becoming Rich with Daily Scavenging APP-Chapter 576: The Three-Body Project

After resting a day at Zhang Yuling's house, Gong Fan called Chen Yiyang for a meeting upon learning he had arrived in the Imperial Capital.

When Chen Yiyang arrived at Gong Fan's house, he discovered that Gong Fan had also invited a few other people.

"Let me introduce you, this is a certain leader from CCTV, and this is Li Eryun, a producer from Tengxu."

Gong Fan briefly introduced the identities of the others to Chen Yiyang.

"So, is Earth Wanderer being adapted into a TV series?" Chen Yiyang looked at this setup and felt that unless Earth Wanderer was being turned into a show, there was no way to gather such a group of people.

"Not Earth Wanderer, it's Three-Body," Gong Fan said.

"Three-Body adaptation?" Chen Yiyang asked in surprise.

"Yes," Gong Fan nodded.

"This is a major challenge." Even though it was suggested by Gong Fan, Chen Yiyang felt it was somewhat unreliable.

The original Three-Body Problem is extremely well-written, but filming it would be very difficult.

Science fiction is already a niche genre, and due to its content, its film and television adaptation costs are higher than other genres.

Even the softest sci-fi requires some costly special effects.

Not to mention hard sci-fi like Three-Body.

High investment, high cost, and high filming difficulty.

The brilliance of the original has also heightened audiences' expectations for its adaptation.

If it's not well filmed, it will be a thankless effort, damaging the reputation and losing money.

Moreover, many high-level leaders are fans of Three-Body.

A previous Three-Body film was scrapped just before screening, after being personally reviewed by the leaders who deemed it unworthy of release.

The filming was just too poor, and the leaders felt releasing it would tarnish the brand.

But if Gong Fan were to direct it himself?

Then, maybe, it could be successful.

"Are you planning to direct it yourself?" Chen Yiyang asked Gong Fan.

"No, no, no," Gong Fan quickly shook his head, "My Earth Wanderer series isn't even done, how could I take on this job."

"Then what about it?" Chen Yiyang turned to look at the representatives from CCTV and Tengxu.

"CCTV provides support, Tengxu offers the rights, and you choose the director and screenwriter, how about it?"

The people from CCTV and Tengxu hadn't actually decided on who would handle the filming.

They approached Gong Fan to involve Chen Yiyang, hoping he would find a director and screenwriter to set up the project.

"Why does it have to be now? Why not wait a few years until the domestic sci-fi film and TV industry matures?" Chen Yiyang asked.

"We're mainly pressed for time," the Tengxu representative said wistfully. "While Three-Body's IP is indeed influenced by us domestically, internationally its rights have already been sold early on.

We've received word that Netflix has already begun preparing to film a Three-Body TV series. This is our country's top IP, we can't let a foreign version come out first, can we?"

With that said, it dawned on Chen Yiyang that this was essentially a political task.

Three-Body, without a doubt, is the premier IP in the domestic sci-fi field, a rare, globally influential super IP.

If it isn't adapted, there's no problem, but if the overseas adaptation happens first, then there's a big issue.

The international rights for Three-Body had long been sold off.

And the guy who sold this IP has already been sentenced to death.

Of course, he wasn't sentenced to death for selling the Three-Body IP, but for poisoning and murder.

Originally, Three-Body IP was purchased for just 100,000 yuan by a director named Zhang Fanfan.

At that time, Youzu's boss, Lin Qi, was a huge fan of Three-Body and wanted to bring it to the big screen, so he approached Zhang Fanfan to buy the rights for 1.2 billion yuan and turn Three-Body into a six-part film series.

Zhang Fanfan agreed to sell the rights but insisted on directing it himself. Unfortunately, Zhang Fanfan's skill was awful, resulting in a terrible product.

Then Youzu's CEO, Xu Santu, stepped in, and after negotiations, eventually bought the full rights to Three-Body for 1.2 billion yuan.

However, Youzu later encountered repeated setbacks in Three-Body's development, causing the company's revenues to continuously decline.

Thus, Youzu's second-tier boss, Lin Qi, reduced Xu Santu's responsibilities and cut his annual salary from 20 million to 4 million.

As a result, Xu Santu bore a grudge against Lin Qi, self-taught in poisoning, and then poisoned Lin Qi to death.

This straightforward and brutal business tactic naturally resulted in Xu Santu being sentenced to death.

But before that, the overseas rights to Three-Body had already been sold to Netflix by Xu Santu.

Now Netflix is set to start filming the overseas version of Three-Body.

If no domestic version follows, the first TV series of Three-Body, this top national IP, will inevitably be a foreign production.

And the reason Chen Yiyang sees this as a political task is because historically, the last top IP seized by a foreign adaptation was Russia's War and Peace.

North America managed to shoot a quite ordinary version ahead of Russia, putting Russia in a rather passive position.

Eventually, Russia invested without hesitation, deploying true artifacts from 44 museums and galleries, creating a full-scale replica of Moscow in 1812, and filmed it burning to the ground, enlisting over 15,000 soldiers, extensive helicopter aerial shots, and spending dozens of tons of explosives to finally complete the production.

With such a precedent, the authorities naturally do not want to be in such a passive situation this time.

Thus, they tasked CCTV and Tengxu with filming a Three-Body TV series before Netflix completes their version.

Faced with this political task, CCTV and Tengxu dare not randomly assign this top IP to someone else for filming.

So these two companies reviewed and found that in recent years, whether it's a blockbuster TV series or film, they share one characteristic.

That is, they all involve Chen Yiyang's investment.

With that in mind, they sought Gong Fan to act as a lobbyist, inviting Chen Yiyang to take on this task.

"I'm neither a director nor a screenwriter, why call me over to take charge of such an affair," Chen Yiyang shrugged, unwilling to accept this hassle.

"But you know the best directors and screenwriters." Li Eryun, who often produces Tencent-led film and TV projects, said to Chen Yiyang.

"For the Three-Body TV series, the hardest part isn't filming it, but gaining audience recognition for it afterwards.

Therefore, when assembling a team for the Three-Body series, the investor or producer with the highest success rate is our top choice.

And currently, the most successful investor in the entertainment industry is you. If you don't take this on, it will be hard for us to find another suitable person."

What Li Eryun said was the truth.

For an ordinary TV series, even producers doubtful of their abilities would want a part, to gain experience whether it succeeds or not.

But Three-Body is different. If this project fails, the person responsible might just vanish in the industry.