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