“You are bugs” and you have been warned.
You might have spotted that message out in the world or on social media lately and if you’ve watched 3 Body Problem, you know by now, nowhere is safe from the San-Ti. Humans might be the most dominant species on Earth, but to some, we’re simply pests. What exactly does this menacing phrase mean for our future?
Even for an actor as skilled as Andrew Scott, playing a character as infamous as Tom Ripley poses a serious creative challenge. Since the release of Patricia Highsmith’s now canonical 1955 novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, the elusive, murderous grifter has become a fixture in the cultural imagination. He’s headlined multiple novels and movie adaptations — meaning that almost everyone is acquainted with at least one incarnation of Tom Ripley.
Even though the showrunners of 3 Body Problem had decades of experience adapting popular book series to create Emmy-winning television — David Benioff and D.B. Weiss with Game of Thrones, Alexander Woo with True Blood — transforming Liu Cixin’s Hugo Award-winning sci-fi trilogy presented a few novel challenges. “As books, they work enormously well, and we were excited by the challenge of making a show that makes you feel the way that we felt when we read them,” says Weiss. “It isn’t exactly the same…