China’s Yoozoo Group president Lin Qi, executive producer of Netflix’s sci-fi adaptation “The Three-Body Problem”, is currently hospitalized in Shanghai after what a police report indicated on Wednesday that could be deliberate poisoning. performed by a colleague involved in managing that IP.
Netflix announced in September that it will adapt all three books in the critically acclaimed sci-fi trilogy by Chinese writer Liu Cixin, with the creators of “Game of Thrones” David Benioff and DB Weiss, along with Alexander Woo. to write and produce executive.
The streamer bought the rights to adapt the English series from video game developer Yoozoo, a Shenzhen-listed company that acquired the rights in 2015, and is currently working on other Chinese film and TV adaptations.
A 39-year-old male patient with the surname Lin was “suspected of having been poisoned while being diagnosed and treated at a hospital,” the Shanghai Department of Public Security said at 7 pm local time in a post in his official social media account. The police received the incident report last Thursday, December 17.
The statement continues: “After research and research on the spot, it was discovered that Lin’s colleague, surnamed Xu (male, 39), was suspected of committing a serious crime. At the moment, Xu has been criminally detained by the police according to the law, and related investigations are being conducted. ”
The post did not link the case directly to Yoozoo. Typical of such advertisements in China, it also did not list the full name of the victim or the perpetrator.
However, Chinese reports link the statement to Lin, 39, who founded Yoozoo in 2009.
Citing sources within the company, vehicle reports including the respected financial publication Caixin identify the perpetrator as Yoozoo exec Xu Yao, 39. The University of Michigan Law School graduate joined the company in 2017 and became CEO of The Three-Body Universe, branch of the broader group within its most recent film production arm involved in the management and development of the IP “Três Corpos”.
In the past few days, the Chinese media has written more speculatively about internal strife among Yoozoo executives that led to poisoning. Some reports claim that Lin was poisoned by a variety of aged and appreciated fermented tea, known as pu’er.
Yoozoo Group co-chairman Chen Fang previously denied such claims on social media, saying “there is no internal struggle … rumors are the real poison,” according to such reports.
But after the post of the public security agency gave new credence to previous speculation, Yoozoo released a formal statement on the matter on Wednesday.
“Although the company’s management recovered from the emergency situation last week and resumed normal operations, some friends are still uneasy and the public is curious” about the case, he began.
The company confirmed that Lin actually “developed acute symptoms of illness and immediately rushed to the hospital” on the night of December 16, and that “the hospital contacted the police as soon as possible during the treatment process”. Both Lin’s treatment and the investigation made “clear progress,” he added, with Lin currently hospitalized, but in a stable and improving condition.
He pleaded with partners and investors to “rest easy” as top executives and key employees are back to work, saying: “The company is operating normally” Its shares fell nearly 3%, closing at RMB 14.07 (US $ 2.15) on Wednesday. It opened another 7% lower on Thursday.
The Yooozoo Group achieved net income of $ 75.8 million (RMB495 million) in the first half of 2020, an increase of 22% year on year, according to its half-yearly report. Chinese media cites Sensor Tower as listing Yoozoo among the top six Chinese publishers of mobile games in terms of global revenue in recent months.
Even just three months after its announcement, Netflix’s “Three-Body Problem” series has been plagued by previous conflicts, after some American politicians questioned the company for choosing to adapt a work by Liu. The author had previously expressed support for the Chinese government’s policies in Xinjiang, a region where Beijing forcibly imprisoned more than one million ethnic minority Uighurs in detention camps.
Netflix vehemently contested the senators’ criticisms. He points repeatedly to the fact that “Mr. Liu is the author of the books, not the creator of this series. Netflix Vice President of Public Policy Dean Garfield wrote: “Mr. Liu’s comments do not reflect the views of Netflix or the creators of the show, nor are they part of the show’s plot or themes. “