It is said that Netflix picked up a treasure by shooting "The Three-Body Problem", but Youzu behind it just smiled

On September 1, a drama project by a film and television company on the other side of the ocean just got started and it set off a sensation in the Chinese science fiction circle - Netflix announced that it had reached a cooperation with Youzu Group and would jointly develop and produce the English series of "The Three-Body Problem" in the future.

Many netizens are curious. "The Three-Body Problem" is the work of Liu Cixin. Why doesn't Netflix ask Liu Cixin for the authorization of "The Three-Body Problem", but instead cooperate with a game company, Youzu Group?

In fact, this issue not only involves the copyright ownership of "The Three-Body Problem", but also involves the attitudes of various forces towards the work "The Three-Body Problem". Considering that "The Three-Body Problem" has undergone film and television adaptations, this capital attitude actually implies a key factor in the success or failure of the film and television adaptation of "The Three-Body Problem".

The “unpolished jade” has changed hands several times

As one of the most hardcore science fiction works in the world, Yan Feng, a professor at the Chinese Department of Fudan University, even commented on the author of "The Three-Body Problem", Liu Cixin: "I have no doubt that this man has single-handedly raised Chinese science fiction literature to the world level."

But before 2010, both The Three-Body Problem and other science fiction works were considered niche literature in my country. For example, Science Fiction World, the birthplace of The Three-Body Problem and China’s largest science fiction magazine, had a monthly circulation of only 150,000 copies in 2009.

Against this backdrop, director Zhang Fanfan took a fancy to the copyright of The Three-Body Problem in 2009. According to Liu Cixin, “I had no other choice at the time, because Zhang Fanfan was the only one who asked me to buy the copyright, and I sold it very quickly.” Thus, Zhang Fanfan directly obtained the permanent copyright of The Three-Body Problem for film, television and games for RMB 100,000.

From then on, the full media copyright of "The Three-Body Problem" had nothing to do with Liu Cixin anymore, which also explains why in the English series of "The Three-Body Problem" developed by Netflix, Liu Cixin could only serve as a nominal "production consultant".

After obtaining the copyright, Zhang Fanfan went around looking for producers to sell the movie version of "The Three-Body Problem". Finally, in 2014, Youzu Pictures acquired all the copyrights of "The Three-Body Problem" from Zhang Fanfan, and boasted that the movie version of "The Three-Body Problem" would be made into six parts, with a single film investment of over 200 million yuan and unlimited additional special effects investment. In March 2015, Youzu Pictures announced that the film "The Three-Body Problem" had been completed and was expected to be released in 2016.

At the same time, influenced by the popularity of science fiction films such as Interstellar, the Hugo Award, the "Nobel Prize in Science Fiction", and the recommendation of political and business leaders, The Three-Body Problem began to go viral in 2015. Baidu Index data shows that since 2015, the search index of The Three-Body Problem has jumped from less than 20,000 points to over 140,000 points.

More importantly, although it was only an adaptation of Liu Cixin's novella and intermediate novel, the box office of "The Wandering Earth" in 2019 reached a staggering 4.618 billion yuan, ranking third in the total box office rankings of Chinese movies. This has further increased the audience's expectations for the "Three-Body" movie, as well as the value of the "Three-Body" full media copyright held by Youzu.

However, according to people who have seen the movie "The Three-Body Problem", it is "just at the level of a network movie". Youzu is very clear about the gap between what it has produced and what the audience expects. If it is released hastily, it would be a good thing if it is not drowned by the audience's saliva, let alone achieving box office results similar to "The Wandering Earth". Therefore, it would rather let the movie rot in the stomach than release it to the public.

However, after more than ten years of development, as of 2019, the total global sales of "The Three-Body Problem" have exceeded 21 million copies, and it has become a banner of science fiction in the hearts of Chinese people. Youzu also holds the permanent full-media copyright of "The Three-Body Problem" for film, television and games. Therefore, for Youzu, the "Three-Body Problem" movie has not even the meaning of a movie in a sense. Its greater significance is to help Youzu obtain the copyright of "The Three-Body Problem", which is much more valuable than a "bad movie".

If "The Three-Body Problem" before 2010 was still a "stone", then Youzu, which now understands that it has a "unpolished jade" in its hands, has long been fearless.

Youzu, the company that sells The Three-Body Problem

Although Youzu's main business is "games", its financial data has been extremely ugly in the past two years because its competitors are too strong and It has focused too much on web games and failed to keep up with the market.

In 2019, Youzu's total operating revenue was 3.22 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 10.07%; net profit attributable to shareholders was 257 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 74.58%, and its non-net profit loss was 170 million yuan; research and development expenses were 319 million yuan, a decrease of 13.67% from 2018, accounting for 9.91% of operating income.

At the same time, YOOZOO executives have been reducing their holdings. For example, at the end of 2019, YOOZOO Chairman Lin Qi sold all of his YOOZOO convertible bonds in one go, cashing out about 300 million yuan. Throughout the year, Lin Qi reduced his holdings of YOOZOO shares by 2.37%.

Although Youzu's financial data eased in the 2020 semi-annual report, 363 million of the 492 million yuan in net profit in the first half of the year came from the first quarter, which was the objective stimulus of the epidemic. In the second quarter, Youzu's net profit was only about 130 million yuan, a month-on-month decrease of more than 60%.

As its main business was declining, Youzu began to focus on "The Three-Body Problem", which was more popular in the capital market. At the end of 2018, Youzu established a wholly-owned subsidiary "Three-Body Universe", which was the starting point of this strategy.

Interestingly, at the same time as Youzu established the "Three-Body Universe", the media revealed in 2018 that Amazon Studios was negotiating with Youzu to acquire the copyright of "The Three-Body Problem" for US$1 billion and shoot a "Three-Body Problem" series.

Before Amazon could "refute the rumor", Youzu issued a statement, stating righteously: "Youzu Pictures is the sole owner of the global film and television adaptation rights and other rights of the "Three-Body" series of novels. Youzu Pictures has the exclusive right to adapt the "Three-Body" series of novels into film and television dramas and develop derivative products."

After all, it is going to be sold, so it is understandable to shout a few words before selling to raise the price and attract attention.

Since then, Youzu has been working tirelessly to explore the value of "The Three-Body Problem". In mid-2019, Three-Body Universe authorized Bilibili to develop the "The Three-Body Problem" 3D animation project; in mid-2020, Three-Body Universe authorized Penguin Pictures to develop the TV series "The Three-Body Problem"; and Youzu itself, through a clever nesting operation, announced that it had obtained the ten-year game development rights for the "The Three-Body Problem" series of novels and would develop a "The Three-Body Problem" game. Of course, this also includes the "The Three-Body Problem" English series that Netflix will shoot as mentioned at the beginning.

Considering that "The Three-Body Problem" will remain a benchmark for Chinese science fiction literature for some time to come, and that Youzu owns the permanent copyright authorization for "The Three-Body Problem", it is believed that under the guidance of Youzu, more capital forces will join this "feast" to divide the value of "The Three-Body Problem" in the future.

Attitude determines direction

Although Youzu has been developing film and television content based on "The Three-Body Problem" in recent years, at the audience level, the most popular film and television adaptation of "The Three-Body Problem" was not produced by Youzu, but by fans out of love.

In 2014, Shenyoubafang, a UP host at Bilibili, wanted to "promote his favorite works" and created the "My Three-Body" animation through an open sandbox game "Minecraft". The total number of views reached 20.761 million, and it received a Douban score of 9.4.

Coincidentally, in order to show the most classic water drop in "The Three-Body Problem: The Dark Forest", young director Wang Ren made a science fiction short film called "Water Drop" in 2015. After it was released, it aroused heated discussion among netizens and received a Douban score of 8.7. Even the original author Liu Cixin couldn't help but sigh after watching it: "I can responsibly say that this is the "Three-Body Problem" movie in my mind. If I can shoot this kind of artistic conception, I will die with my eyes closed."

The reason why the final results of Youzu's copyright management and fans' creation of the "Three-Body" film and television series are different is that it all comes down to different focuses - the former only focuses on financial returns, while the latter focuses on the quality of the work.

In fact, in the film and television adaptation industry, since most writers do not sell the adaptation rights of their works permanently too early, most writers can find suitable directors to fully expand the concepts of their works while relatively maintaining their voice and achieve a "work-based system."

For example, in 1995, Feng Xiaogang adapted Liu Zhenyun's "A Place Full of Feathers" and won great success in both word-of-mouth and ratings. In the following two decades, Feng Xiaogang adapted Liu Zhenyun's works such as "Cell Phone", "Revisiting 1942" and "I Am Not Madame Bovary" to the big screen, and during this process, Liu Zhenyun also served as the screenwriter for most of the films. In the end, most of these works won great success in both word-of-mouth and box office.

From this perspective, Liu Cixin, who hastily sold the permanent copyright of "The Three-Body Problem" early on, actually has to bear some responsibility for the current dilemma of the film and television adaptation of "The Three-Body Problem".

Back to Youzu, although in order to maintain the residual heat of the copyright of "The Three-Body Problem", it has enough motivation to find a reliable film and television company and allow the latter to make brilliant film and television works through authorization, but combined with Youzu's actions in the past two years, it is obvious that it is still bound by the immediate interests, and thus began to cast a wide net to exploit the residual heat of the copyright of "The Three-Body Problem".

Although many people believe that as the world's leading streaming company, Netflix will present the best of "The Three-Body Problem", it cannot be ignored that "The Three-Body Problem", a science fiction novel with Chinese characteristics, will be adapted into an English series, which will greatly weaken the soul of "The Three-Body Problem". Considering that although Netflix launches a large number of self-produced dramas every year, there are only a few with good reputations, and most of them will fail, either with a bad ending or being cancelled, which further increases the content risk of Netflix's version of "The Three-Body Problem".

Ultimately, the core problem of the dilemma of adapting "The Three-Body Problem" into a film or TV series is not the maturity of film and television technology or the difficulty of adaptation, but the fact that Youzu firmly holds the permanent copyright of "The Three-Body Problem" and has always regarded "The Three-Body Problem" as a tool to "make money."

Considering that Youzu is unlikely to easily abandon the copyright of "The Three-Body Problem" before the popularity of "The Three-Body Problem" has subsided, the success or failure of the film and television adaptation of "The Three-Body Problem" in the future may only be attributed to luck.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.