An executive producer of Netflix’s upcoming The Three-Body Problem adaptation is recovering from an attempt on his life. According to Deadline, Lin Qi was hospitalized earlier this month for what seemed to be an alleged poisoning. The chairman and CEO of Chinese game developer Yoozoo (or Yuzou) was reportedly admitted to a local hospital on December 16. Wednesday the company issued a statement declaring Lin was in stable condition.
According to Deadline, the Shanghai Municipal Police received reports of Lin’s hospitalization on December 17. Following this report, an investigation was started and a suspect was soon detained. While the investigation remains ongoing, the suspect has been described as a “39-year-old man surnamed Xu.” According to the Yoozoo statement, the suspect is a colleague of Lin and works for the film and TV branch of his company.
The Three-Body Problem is the first series from Netflix’s deal with former HBO creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. This will be the duo’s first TV project since Game of Thrones ended in 2019. Based on the trilogy from Liu Cixin (Ball Lightning, The Supernova Era), The Three-Body Problem explores a future Earth’s first encounter with an alien race. The second and third books in the series are titled The Dark Forest and Death’s End.
This isn’t the only legal trouble the series has encountered since being announced in September. According to Deadline, five Republican senators took issue with Netlfix making the show. In a letter addressed to Netflix co-CEO and CCO Ted Sarandos, the senators alleged the book’s author previously echoed support for a Chinese communist government that currently detained Uighur Muslims in internment camps.
The quote in question was noted in a 2019 interview with the New Yorker. When asked about the internment camps, Liu was cited as saying: “‘Would you rather that they be hacking away at bodies at train stations and schools in terrorist attacks? If anything, the government is helping their economy and trying to lift them out of poverty… If you were to loosen up the country bit, the consequences would be terrifying.’” Netflix would later dismiss the senators’ letter, stating their company “does not operate a service in China” via Deadline.
According to Deadline, Liu’s book was the first from an Asian author to win Hugo award in 2015. Before signing a deal with Netflix, the popular series had previously looked at a billion-dollar acquisition from Amazon.