‘A new era for Chinese science fiction’: The Wandering Earth director, producer wow fans at US screenings
- Chinese New Year hit shown in North America, after Netflix picks up rights, and its director and producer face fans at sold-out screenings
- Sci-fi genre in China has entered a new era, director Frant Gwo says, but it’s not a match yet for the best of Hollywood
On Sunday, director Frant Gwo and producer Gong Ge’er spoke with fans at two sold-out screenings in New York. They arrived there after meeting earlier in the week with film industry executives in Los Angeles.
“Hollywood thought the idea behind The Wandering Earth was really cool,” Gwo told the audience. “The idea that people were running away from disaster but decided to take the Earth with them. That’s our Chinese feeling of love for our home, our world.”
Based on a novella by Liu Cixin, The Wandering Earth details an attempt to rescue the Earth from an exploding sun by using giant rockets to move the planet to a new solar system. Plans go awry when the Earth is dragged into Jupiter’s gravitational field. Aboard an international space station, Liu Peiqiang (played by Wu Jing) coordinates manoeuvres by rescuers on Earth.
Joining Wu are screen veterans such as Hong Kong’s Ng Man-tat, playing a grizzled truck driver, and Li Guangjie as Wang Lei, a soldier willing to sacrifice everything to complete his mission. But fans clamoured to learn more about Liu Qi (Qu Chuxiao) and Han Duoduo (Zhao Jinmai), youngsters who are pulled into a perilous journey on the Earth’s surface, where they face earthquakes and sub-zero temperatures.
