Adam McKay Producing Adaptation of THE FIRST SHOT, a COVID-19 Vaccine Hunt Book, for HBO

Adam McKay, who wrote the films Ant-Man, The Big Short, and Vice, and produced Succession and Dead to Me, is working on a limited series for HBO called The First Shot. The story is based on a “non-fiction narrative book by The Atlantic and New York Times writer Brendan Borrell.”

The series is currently going by Untitled Vaccine Project, and McKay is set to executive produce alongside Todd Schulman and Borrell.

Deadline reports that the book “tells the story of the global coronavirus vaccine race. It will explore the companies and individuals putting everything on the line to save lives, the science that it is based on, and the challenges playing out around politics, access, and safety.”

The report goes on to tell of Borrell’s knowledge on the subject:

Borrell has been closely covering the vaccine search, writing pieces including The Dire Diplomacy of the Global ‘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 flesh-eating bacteria problem for The Atlantic.

This is certainly a timely series. It will be interesting to see what comes of it and the rest of the projects that pop up relating to the coronavirus. Are you interested in this limited series?