David Farnor | On 21, Feb 2019

Mandarin sci-fi film The Wandering Earth is heading to Netflix.

Based on the novella of the same title by Liu Cixin, the first Asian novelist to win the Hugo Award for Science Fiction, The Wandering Earth is directed and written by Frant Gwo, featuring a stellar cast of Qu Chuxiao, Li Guangjie, Ng Man-tat and Zhao Jinmai, with a special appearance by Wu Jing.

The Wandering Earth tells the story of a close future in which the sun is about to expand into a red giant and devour the Earth, prompting mankind to make an audacious attempt to save planet. The multi-generational heroes build ten-thousand stellar engines in an effort to propel Planet Earth out the solar system, in the hope of finding a new celestial home. During the 2,500 year-long journey, a group of daring heroes emerge to defend human civilization from unexpected dangers and new enemies, and to ensure the survival of humanity in this age of the wandering Earth.

The movie has a production scale rarely seen in Mandarin films, with post-production and special effects work spanning two years, undergoing more than 3,000 conceptual designs, and featuring over 10,000 specifically-built props, while employing more than 2,000 special effects shots and a substantial amount of computer graphics shots. It premiered in China, North America, Australia and New Zealand regions during Lunar New Year, and earned an exceptional RMB 3.3 billion at the box office within 10 days.

“Netflix is committed to providing entertainment lovers with access to a wide variety of global content. With its high-quality production and story-telling, we believe that The Wandering Earth will be loved by Sci-Fi fans around the world,” says Jerry Zhang, Manager of Content Acquisition at Netflix.

Director Frant Gwo comments: “Audiences from over 190 countries will soon meet The Wandering Earth on Netflix. I am glad that our movie can reach to people from different parts of the world. This is a movie created for the Chinese audience around the world, and it has been positively received since its premiere, we are very excited about it. To my surprise, this movie also resonate outside Mainland China. Netflix will translate it into 28 languages, enabling more viewers to enjoy it regardless of geographical and linguistic differences. I hope they will like it.”

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