Lawyer sentenced to death for murdering copyright owner of the series “The Problem of 3 Bodies”

Lin, who was 39 years old, died on December 25th. Police arrested Xu a few days later. He allegedly refused to confess to the crime and did not reveal what poison he used, complicating doctors’ efforts to save the businessman’s life. Four other people were hospitalized in serious condition, but survived. The charges outlined in Shanghai’s First Intermediate People’s Court said Xu poisoned drinks in the office between September and December of that year, the same period when negotiations for the show’s adaptation took place.

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At the end of March, the court made public the details of the crime. Lin’s murder was described as “as bizarre as a Hollywood blockbuster”. Chinese media reports have cited company sources and court documents that point to a history of corporate ambition and rivalry. To carry out the murder, Xu would have carried out meticulous planning, including testing poisons on small animals in an improvised laboratory. At trial, his actions were classified as “extremely despicable”.

Chinese business magazine Caixin revealed that Xu was a lawyer and joined Yoozoo in 2017 to head a subsidiary called The Three-Body Universe, which managed the rights to the work. But not long after, he was demoted and his salary reduced, apparently due to poor performance. The vehicle also pointed out that Xu was inspired by the series “Breaking Bad” to commit the crime.

At the time, Yoozoo said that the death was announced by the businessman’s family, without specifying the cause. The organization holds the rights to the series that recently debuted on Netflix, based on a best-selling Chinese science fiction trilogy. Lin began working with the streaming platform, David Benioff and DB Weiss – creators of “Game of Thrones” – to bring the alien invasion saga to an international audience.

Lin spent millions of dollars in 2014 purchasing licenses related to the original books, written by author Liu Cixin. The plot tells the story of an engineer hired to investigate a wave of suicides committed by scientists and discovers an extraterrestrial conspiracy. Lin, who was considered a “rising star,” wanted to build a franchise of television shows and films similar to “Star Wars.”

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In the Netflix adaptation, a group of physicists seek to understand why scientific experiments around the world are failing. The cast of the eight-episode series includes actors Eiza Gonzalez, Jovan Adepo, Jess Hong and Jonathan Pryce, while Brad Pitt, Rosamund Pike and Rian Johnson are among the show’s executive producers.

According to a January report in The Hollywood Reporter, Benioff said the murder was “certainly disconcerting.” “When you work in this business, you expect all kinds of problems to arise. Someone poisoning the boss is usually not one of them.”he said.

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