Five novels by China's renowned science-fiction writer Liu Cixin are set for movie adaptation, the China Film Group disclosed on Thursday.
The China Film Group Corporation, reports say, will be taking 24 new film projects and three of which are based on Liu's works, such as "The Era of Supernova," "Micro Era" and "The Wandering Earth."
Liu will personally write the screenplay for the said three movies.
The China Film Group, meanwhile, said that the three science-fiction movies will have the highest funding than the rest of the 24 projects. "The Wandering Earth" will be budgeted at $50 million, "Micro Era" at $40 million and "The Era of Supernova" at $60 million.
Initial reports said that the novelist's famous trilogy, "Three Body," and "The Rural Teacher" were also planned for film production. It was rumored that director Ning Hao of China's recent top-grossing film "Breakup Buddies" will be directing "The Rural Teacher." "Breakup Buddies" earned over 1.16 billion yuan since its debut on Sept. 30.
"Three Body's" first volume "The Three-Body Problem" was released in English by U.S. publishing company Tor Books in November. The first English-translated Chinese science-fiction novel was awarded China's top science-fiction recognition, the Galaxy Award.
Being an eight-time Galaxy awardee and Nebula award recipient, Liu is now one of China's most famous science-fiction writers.
The Hollywood film "Interstellar" may be a blockbuster film in China and may be incomparable to local sci-fi movies, but Liu said that Chinese directors should likewise take the risk.
The sci-fi novelist said that the local film industry should try financing for sci-fi movies even more.
Other writers like Xu Lei (Nan Paj San Shu) and Cai Jun were also invited by the China Film group for their novels' movie adaptation. Out of the 24 projects, 19 will be film adaptations and the rest are original film ideas.
La Peikang, China Film Group chairman, said at the press conference that they decided to publicize the 24 projects to attract worldwide investment and cooperation.