It’s like something out of a (Game Of Thrones) novel: Yoozoo Group chairman Lin Qi—who has been working with HBO’s GOT masterminds David Benioff and D.B. Weiss on an adaptation of Liu Cixin’s insanely popular sci-fi trilogy The Three-Body Problem—is currently hospitalized after an alleged poisoning, and another executive from the company is in police custody as the lead suspect, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The outlet states that Qi was hospitalized in Shanghai on Dec. 16 and that local authorities have apprehended a suspect who “has been identified by Chinese media outlets as Xu Yao, a senior executive in Yoozoo’s film and television division (only his surname and age were released by police). Local reports have alleged that a prior dispute among the Chinese entertainment company’s executive ranks preceded the surreptitious assault on Lin.”
It was first announced in September that Netflix, Benioff, and Weiss were going to produce an English-language adaptation of Cixin’s work, having purchased the rights from Qi’s Yoozoo Group and its subsidiary Three-Body Universe. Qi is listed as a producer on the series alongside the GOT duo, Rosamund Pike’s production company Primitive Streak, and Brad Pitt’s production company Plan B. Rian Johnson and producing partner Ram Bergman also serve as executive producers on the series, with Cixin and Ken Liu serving as consulting producers.
The Three-Body Problem series is intended to be Benioff and Weiss’ first project as part of their highly publicized nine-figure overall deal they inked at Netflix, which kept them from their one-time plans of developing a new Star Wars trilogy for Disney’s Lucasfilms. As described by our Britt Hayes, Cixin’s Three-Body Problem trilogy “presents a sprawling, time-hopping narrative that centers on humanity’s first contact with aliens. The title of the first book, The Three-Body Problem, is a reference to the physics and classical mechanics theory.”
