The Making Of Three Body Problem Involved A Real Crime Straight Out Of A Netflix Thriller
Netflix's "3 Body Problem" adaptation, which I reviewed for /Film here, is a genre-bender in the truest sense of the phrase. Based on Chinese author Liu Cixin's seminal novel of the same name (or almost the same name, more accurately, as it's originally titled "The Three-Body Problem"), the series takes its cues from hard sci-fi, horror, and even bursts of fantasy while telling a sweeping and genuinely epic story about humanity's first contact with aliens. The live-action series isn't the first attempt to bring the Hugo-award-winning book to the small screen, as China's own uber-faithful "Three-Body" beat Netflix to the punch a few years ago. But as much as hardcore fans might enjoy pitting the two adaptations against one another, even that manufactured rivalry is nothing compared to the behind-the-scenes drama that ultimately led to "Game of Thrones" creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss gaining the rights to put their own spin on the material.
In the early going, "3 Body Problem" takes on the characteristics of a murder-mystery, establishing that the best and brightest minds in all of science have fallen victim to a string of eerie suicides that sets Benedict Wong's investigator Clarence Shi and the quintet of main characters known as the "Oxford Five" (made up of Jess Hong as Jin Cheng, Eiza González as Auggie Salazar, Jovan Adepo as Saul Durand, John Bradley as Jack Rooney, and Alex Sharp as Will Downing) on a collision course. But in an extreme example of truth being stranger than fiction, the making of "3 Body Problem" is inexorably wrapped up in a real-life crime — a murder involving the CEO of China's rights-holder to the source material and possibly inspired by "Breaking Bad," of all things.
Buckle up, folks, because this is one wild ride.
A meeting gone horribly wrong
In Hollywood, it's not uncommon for filmmakers to describe meetings with studio executives in terms of life-or-death stakes, given how much tends to be on the line during these face-to-face negotiations ... but they don't usually mean that to be taken literally. Apparently, those involved in discussions for the Chinese studio Yoozoo Group to hand over the rights to "The Three-Body Problem" to their American counterparts didn't get that memo. The result just might have led to the most shocking and high-profile murder in the corporate world.
It all started, according to this "3 Body Problem" profile by The Hollywood Reporter, in 2018. Yoozoo had zeroed in on Amazon Studios as a potential partner to sell the rights to author Liu Cixin's trilogy, spending almost a full year acquiring talent (including producer Rian Johnson, whose credit remains in the final product) and wooing the Jeff Bezos-owned conglomerate. This reached a crescendo with a meeting in Los Angeles between the two parties, with Yoozoo represented by its own billionaire founder Lin Qi. According to THR's sources, the bizarre tone was set by Lin, who "dressed like a gangster and put his feet up." The loose cannon of a CEO then proceeded to sabotage his own deal when he decided to restructure the entire agreement at the last possible moment. In the words of another nameless executive present at the meeting, "[Lin] was so obnoxious. We were one minute away from signature when their CEO suddenly said, 'Let's do a joint venture instead.'"
Unsurprisingly, this unexpected pivot caused the lucrative deal to fall apart and left the other Yoozoo executives outraged. One, however, appeared to take this even harder than the others. His name is Xu Yao and he became the prime suspect in Lin's eventual murder.
The Walter White influence
After guiding "Game of Thrones" through eight chaotic and highly-publicized seasons, "3 Body Problem" creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss certainly aren't strangers to the idea that fiction can be a powerful tool that can inspire millions. But despite spearheading two of the most expensive shows ever made, even this creative pair can't quite compete with one particular allegation that ties this sordid tale together with a different series entirely: "Breaking Bad." Once Lin Qi was found dead in Shanghai only two years after that disastrous meeting and early reports suggested homicide, Yoozoo film division leader Xu Yao became an early suspect. Xu supposedly poisoned his former boss by tampering with his tea bags and, according to reports by Chinese media outlet Caixin, his methodical research was partly based on the AMC series "Breaking Bad." An avid fan of the series (which, ironically, was a chief Emmy rival to Weiss and Benioff's "Game of Thrones"), Xu may very well have taken inspiration from the infamous ricin plotline in season 5.
As if that chain of events wasn't incredible enough, Benioff and Weiss received a scare of a lifetime themselves once Netflix stepped up and acquired the rights from Yoozoo in its own deal years later. Only a day after the news of Lin's poison first broke, an unmarked package containing tea bags and "The Three-Body Problem" paraphernalia landed on their doorstep. Benioff described this as "incredibly suspicious" to GQ but it eventually turned out to be a well-intentioned gift (though with awfully bad timing) by Yoozoo to welcome them to the series.
This unsettling instance of true-crime drama might be the strangest footnote in the making of "3 Body Problem," which is set to premiere on March 21, 2024, on Netflix.