As the Ebola virus continues to dominate the headlines, producer Lynda Obst and director-producer Ridley Scott are bringing the deadly virus to the small screen with a limited series for Fox TV Studios based on Richard Preston's 1994 best-seller The Hot Zone.
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. Two nurses who cared for the Texas patient have tested positive for the disease, which kills about half of the people who contract it. This week, it came to light that one of the nurses flew from Cleveland to Dallas the day before testing positive, setting off a new wave of fears that the disease will continue to spread.
“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.”
Preston is writing a piece for next week's New Yorker magazine (The Hot Zone started out as an 1994 article in the New Yorker), chronicling the current outbreak. Obst and Scott, who originally conceived the project as a film that Scott would direct for 20th Century Fox starring Jodie Foster, are in conversations to option Preston’s latest article and would work it into the series, which spans the history of the disease, including a 1989 incident in which primates at a quarantine facility in Virginia became infected with a mutated version of Ebola.
“A limited series is a great way to do this because you don't have to limit it to a three-act structure like you do with a film,” Obst adds.
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. Two nurses who cared for the Texas patient have tested positive for the disease, which kills about half of the people who contract it. This week, it came to light that one of the nurses flew from Cleveland to Dallas the day before testing positive, setting off a new wave of fears that the disease will continue to spread.
“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.”
Preston is writing a piece for next week's New Yorker magazine (The Hot Zone started out as an 1994 article in the New Yorker), chronicling the current outbreak. Obst and Scott, who originally conceived the project as a film that Scott would direct for 20th Century Fox starring Jodie Foster, are in conversations to option Preston’s latest article and would work it into the series, which spans the history of the disease, including a 1989 incident in which primates at a quarantine facility in Virginia became infected with a mutated version of Ebola.
“A limited series is a great way to do this because you don't have to limit it to a three-act structure like you do with a film,” Obst adds.
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Fox, please, get the f out.
ReplyDeleteI would be confused...if this WASN'T the network related to the sh***y news outlet that keeps riding the ebola train hardcore
ReplyDeleteThis just sounds tasteless. Fox milking the Ebola crisis for all it's worth and this "limited series" will likely do well and get more seasons.
ReplyDeleteI dunno, I personally would like to know more about a) the concept of the show; and b) more about the disease. It could be interesting if they focus on the issues with Africa and the world community, and how Western countries are able or not able to deal. It just has to be respectful and be done with taste IMO.
ReplyDeleteLooking at my above, the show might be better as a documentary.
IMO FOX News and FOX Broadcasting Company could not be more different and I definitely don't think of them being part of the same entity (although they are)... And FBC is not involved with this at all so far, they haven't sold it to a network yet, FOX Studios is developing it and pitching it to various networks.
ReplyDeleteNothing wrong with topical content, L&O does it all the time.
ReplyDeleteIf it's like that movie Contagion, it could be good... but I highly doubt I'll ever tune in to this, assuming it gets made.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention, the article states this idea's been in the works for at least the past year. The outbreak wasn't an issue then. So it's not exactly like they're suddenly choosing to jump on some bandwagon or something.
ReplyDeleteThis is just awful, looking to profit on people's misery.
ReplyDeleteYeah, my first thoughts, too. Definitely tasteless. Well someone did a movie about Bird Flu when all that was the big thing, too. People will milk anything for money.
ReplyDeleteFOX can't be this desperate
ReplyDeletereally?
ReplyDeleteToo soon for this
ReplyDeletethis is pathetic and really not going to help their ratings woes at all. good lord ive never seen a network hellbent on wasting money when they dont have $$ to waste
ReplyDeleteit's still a Murdoch owned company, they clearly saw the hype train ebola has (it's one of millions of diseases out there, meanwhile the flu kills more people each year than ebola in 40) and jumped on it.
ReplyDeleteThey're run by different chairmen, granted. Still...I have a deep rooted hate for these racist sensationalist morons there. So I may be going overboard here with pointing my finger at FN specifically, the company is what saw the chance...
They may do a series once this hype is over but now people are TOO set on the fear-factor news outlets are creating...if anything: the news coverage has turned more deadly than the actual disease! (indirectly, panic is the #1 reason for heart failure)
This says more about what FOX thinks of the general population than FOX itself. My view on humanity just went down.
ReplyDeleteWTH?! I won't be watching this. Ebola is a serious subject and I can't believe this is real.
ReplyDelete"the project became incredibly TIMELY..." Just...no. People are dying at this very moment from this disease, and I know a lot of thing are being made based on a "true story", but do it while it is still happening? Big NO.
ReplyDeleteThis project is just utterly tasteless and I agree with what everyone else is saying this is pathetic is Fox so desperate
ReplyDeleteCapitalizing on this deadly epidemic, sure it's been done before still doesn't make it
Right the action of that network is reprehensible, and if it does get made I hope no one watches it!!!!'
"Hey guys, thousands of people are dying in Africa from Ebola, let's fastrack a tv show about it so we can use those deaths and make some money! It's probably what they would have wanted right?".
ReplyDeleteLet's say it has been in development for a year, they should have postponed the project! Not fast tracked it! Take Archer for example, for its entire run the spy organisation in it has been called isis. But that show has enough respect to have decided that they will never use that name again in light of current events. Not mention it every single episode. Granted that's two very different comparisons, but I still think that Fox should have postponed this show. Or they should announce in the next 24 hours that any profit made from it is being sent to Africa to stop the spread of the disease.
ReplyDeleteNo.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing like good timing. Right?
ReplyDeleteWell, not "let's say", exactly, because again, that is a fact according to the article.
ReplyDeleteIf a show does decide to alter things, or pull out of a project, due to certain events, that's entirely their choice and I do respect that. And I certainly understand the concerns about "marketing a tragic event", too.
But at the same time, as noted above, there's crime shows that have their cases "ripped from the headlines", dealing with cases that either recently happened or are currently making the news. Teen-oriented shows have done episodes about school shootings not long after they've happened, or while the nation's been in the midst of a rash of them. And so on. People use TV shows and films to tell stories about society, and sometimes that includes doing stories on tragic events that people are dealing with. Certainly there is a respectful way to handle that and a non-respectful way, but at the same time, there are people who think this stuff would be unacceptable five years from now, there are people who think it's never acceptable, and so on. So where exactly does one draw the line? When is the right time to address this stuff?
Besides that, right now it's all being talked about. We don't know every last detail of the project, we don't know if they're going to approach it in a serious, respectful manner or not, we don't know a lot of things. It may never even wind up airing after all. So while I understand the upset, at the same time, I do feel some people are jumping the gun a little bit, too, and making assumptions that have yet to be proven true. Bottom line is, it is possible to address current national tragedies in entertainment in ways that manage to make it work.
Bad taste, Fox. Very bad taste.
ReplyDeleteThis is disgusting on so many levels.
ReplyDeleteClearly I've been understimating FOX' desperate status.
ReplyDeleteWell The Hot Zone was suppose to be a really good novel and I think this was already in the works before the public was made so aware of it and as it could become more apart of our lives, but I really think this is in bad taste and bad timing. People are all on edge as it is! Lets not make something so deadly that we're still just learning about into entertainment.
ReplyDelete