EXCLUSIVE: Searching for a vaccine for COVID-19 is one of the most important news worldwide at the moment. HBO is turning this hunt into a limited series with Succession executive producer Adam McKay.
The deadline includes that the premium cable network has opted The first shot, a narrative nonfiction book written by The Atlantic and New York Times writer Brendan Borrell.
McKay’s Hyperobject Industries will produce the Untitled Vaccine Project and will be executive producer alongside Todd Schulman and Borrell.
The book, which was sold at auction to publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for Sugar23 Books, tells the story of the global race for the coronavirus vaccine. It will explore the companies and individuals who put everything at stake to save lives, the science behind it, and the challenges that unfold around politics, access and security.
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Borrell has been closely covering the vaccine search, writing pieces that include The Global Diplomacy of the Race for a Vaccine for Wired and articles for National Geographic magazine and Science Magazine. His other work includes coverage of rare genetic diseases for NYT and Australia’s carnivorous bacteria problem for The Atlantic.
McKay has been busy since he launched Hyperobject Industries last year and entered into a five-year television deal with HBO in October. His first project under the deal was established as a limited series based on Miami Herald investigative journalist Julie K. Brown’s upcoming book on Jeffrey Epstein.
His Los Angeles drama project, formerly known as Show timeand based on Jeff Pearlman’s non-fiction book Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s, he was ordained to the series in December with John C. Reilly as Jerry Buss.
He is also working with Bong Joon Ho to adapt the Oscar-winning film. Parasite in a television series, while HBO’s sister HBO Max gave the green light The uninhabitable earth, an anthology series on climate change inspired by David Wallace-Wells’ best-selling global book and New York magazine article, in January.
CAA represented Borrell’s television sale The first shot on behalf of the Waxman Agency. Hyperobject Industries is represented by WME and Ziffren Brittenham.
