Producers Planning on Creating a Ebola TV series
As the Ebola virus is killing hundreds of people across Africa and infecting nurses throughout the United Sates, producers are planning on bringing the deadly illness to a TV near you.
Read more: Ebola Hits Hollywood? Possible Ebola Patient Rushed to Los Angeles Hospital
Hollywood producers Lynda Obst and director-producer Ridley Scott are creating a mini-series that is based on Richard Preston’s 1994 non-fictionbest seller The Hot Zone.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, producers have been working on this TV series for the past 20 years but, since the virus has spread into the United States, producers believe the timing is perfect to release the TV series.
For the past year, the pair quietly has been working on the property, which they optioned two decades ago and never let lapse, hiring Jeff Vintar (I, Robot) to adapt. But the project became incredibly timely a few months ago when the current outbreak — the deadliest manifestation of the disease to date — began to emerge in West Africa. Ebola has ravaged several countries in Africa, killing some 4,400, and has since spread to the United States, claiming one victim in Texas.
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“I think it’s the speed with which it kills that makes the disease so frightening,” Obst tells The Hollywood Reporter. “People hoped it would stay in some remote part of the world. But that’s a fantasy in the modern world. The modern world makes us one big connected family.”
Currently, two nurses who cared for the Texas patient who had the Ebola virus, are currently seeking treatment. Details have been revealed that one of the nurses flew from Cleveland to Dallas the day before testing positive for Ebola. In addition, one of the nurses may have had Ebola symptoms while trying on wedding gowns.
Read more: NBC News Cameraman Has Tested Positive for Ebola
Richard Preston is currently writing an article for the New Yorker discussing the current outbreak. Producers Obst and Scott are planning on using Preston’s latest article and turning it into a TV series. The article is expected to cover the history of the disease, including an incident in which primates at a quarantine facility in became infected with a mutated version of Ebola.
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