Lin Qi, the chairman and CEO of Yoozoo Group who was hospitalized after having been poisoned on Dec. 16, has died. The Chinese company confirmed that Lin died on Christmas Day. He was 39.
On Wednesday evening in China, the Shanghai Public Security Bureau had announced that Lin was receiving treatment after being poisoned and that a Yoozoo coworker of Lin’s, surnamed Xu, had been apprehended amid an investigation.
The statement read: “At 5 p.m. on Dec. 17, 2020, the police received a call from a hospital regarding a patient surnamed Lin. During the patient’s treatment, the hospital said it had determined that the patient had been poisoned. Following the call, the police began an investigation. According to investigations on site and further interviews, the police found that a suspect surnamed Xu, who is a coworker of the victim Lin, was the most likely the perpetrator. The suspect Xu has been arrested and investigations continue.”
The Hollywood Reporter reported that local media have said a dispute among the Chinese entertainment company’s executive ranks preceded the assault on Lin, which was allegedly carried out via a cup of poisoned pu-erh tea.
Lin was credited as a producer on Netflix’s upcoming high-profile series The Three-Body Problem, an adaptation from Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss of the bestselling Chinese sci-fi books. With Benioff and Weiss at the helm, the adaptation counts Alexander Woo (The Terror: Infamy) as showrunner and Rian Johnson, Rosamund Pike and Brad Pitt’s Plan B among its executive producers. The project has had a long and fraught path from page to screen.
The Three-Body Problem trilogy is a global publishing phenomenon, becoming an international bestseller that has been translated into dozens of languages and praised by critics.
Netflix acquired the rights to produce the English-language adaptation from Yoozoo Group and its subsidiary Three-Body Universe, which previously had acquired the rights to the properties.
Lin founded Yoozoo Group in 2009. The games publisher is best known as the developer of Game of Thrones: Winter Is Coming.
