David Benioff and D.B. Weiss may be best known for being the showrunners of Game of Thrones, HBO's fantasy hit that ran for eight seasons, but the pair's next project, which sees them team up with True Blood writer/producer Alexander Woo, is a very different kettle of fish.
3 Body Problem is a new genre-hopping Netflix series based on the Chinese trilogy Remembrance of Earth’s Past by author Liu Cixin – and if that sounds worlds away from Game of Thrones, that's because that was Benioff and Weiss' intention.
"We spent 13 wonderful years in the world of that show and wouldn’t trade them for anything," Weiss tells Total Film in our new issue out this Friday, which features Road House on the cover. "But we really wanted to do something that felt different in many, many ways."
The series, which spans decades and continents, centers around an alien invasion – but the invaders aren't set to arrive on Earth for 400 years. Oh, and a virtual reality comes into play, too. As Woo notes: "A lot of people did say, 'Oh, I don’t know what this is about, but I really want to see it,' which was exactly the effect [we wanted]."
Attempting to figure out just what's going on with our not-so-imminent alien visitors is a group of scientists, played by John Bradley, Eiza González, Alex Sharp, Jess Hong, and Jovan Adepo, who's pictured above in our exclusive image.
"It was not immediately obvious how [the books] could be turned into a TV show," admits Benioff. "But we knew that it was different from anything else we’d encountered."
3 Body Problem is released on Netflix on March 21. And you can read more about it and a whole lot else besides in the new issue of Total Film when it hits shelves and digital newsstands on Friday, March 1. This is one day later than usual, due to how the Leap Year falls.
Check out the covers below:
Pre-order the issue here to bag your copy, or click here to subscribe to Total Film and never miss another exclusive. You’ll get every issue before it's in stores, and you’ll get subscriber-exclusive covers.
