HBO has opted for a book proposal on finding a COVID-19 vaccine with Adam McKay on board as executive producer, Variety Has confirmed.
The potential limited series is based on the proposal for the book “The First Shot” by Brendan Borrell. It tells the story of the global race for the coronavirus vaccine, following the companies and individuals involved, the science behind it, and the challenges surrounding politics, access and security.
McKay will be an executive producer through Hyperobject Industries along with Todd Schulman. Borrell will also serve as executive producer on the project.
McKay established Hyperobject last year at the same time that he signed a five-year television deal with HBO. McKay has several other projects in progress on HBO, including a scripted series about the Los Angeles Lakers from the 1980s, a limited series by Jeffrey Epstein, and an adaptation of the “Parasite” series. He is also preparing a series of anthologies on climate change on HBO Max.
McKay has worked on multiple HBO series during his career, most recently as an executive producer on the Emmy-winning show “Succession,” and McKay also directed the pilot for that series. His other HBO credits include the comedy series “Eastbound & Down” and “Funny or Die Presents”.
McKay and Hyperobject are represented by WME and Ziffren Brittenham.
Borrell is a Los Angeles-based journalist whose writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Bloomberg Businessweek, National Geographic, The New York Times, and Outside. The narrative proposal from Borrell’s nonfiction book for “The First Shot” was sold at auction to publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
CAA repeated the television sale of “The First Shot” on behalf of the Waxman Agency.
The deadline first reported that the series was in development.
