A week after reportedly being admitted to the hospital for poisoning, Chinese businessman Lin Qi has died, according to Deadline. The 39-year-old chairman and CEO of Yoozoo, a gaming developer company, was admitted to a local hospital in China on December 16. A day later, local authorities were notified that his illness was a result of alleged poisoning. A suspect was quickly detained.
According to Deadline, the suspect was colleague of Lin who worked in the TV and film divisions of the company. The man’s full name has yet to be released, but reports state he is a 39-year-old man with the surname of Xu. As the investigation remains ongoing, reports state the incident may have been a result of a dispute among executives at the company, via The Hollywood Reporter. Authorities believe Lin may have been poisoned through a cup of tea.
According to Deadline, Lin was an executive producer for the upcoming Netflix series The Three-Body Problem, an adaptation of the famed book series by Liu Cixin (The Wandering Earth, Death’s End). Lin acquired the rights to Liu’s trilogy in 2014. After proposed film was delayed, Lin finally landed the project at Netflix with Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss to serve as showrunners. This would be the TV duo’s first project after leaving HBO and first with new home Netflix. Lin had a prior working relationship with Benioff and Weiss as his company developed the online game, Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming.
Lin founded Yoozoo in 2009, according to Deadline. He soon branched beyond just gaming to establish both television and film departments of the organization. Under Yoozoo Entertainment, he was a producer for The Crossing film series directed by John Woo (The Killer, Mission: Impossible 2). The films were released in 2014 and 2015 and explored a dramatic romance in the midst of a war and eventual global disaster.