A New Series Outbreak at NBC

Steve Barton   |  

Aug 28, 2013

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Back in the mid-Nineties a book called The Hot Zone by author Richard Preston scared the hell out of the world as it introduced the effects of the Ebola virus in shocking detail. A while afterwards a movie called Outbreak, though not an adaptation, tried to bring some of that intensity to the screen.

The only downside? It pretty much failed and ended up being little more than a generic epidemic flick. So the question beckons: Can NBC add some thrills to a TV thriller version of the movie? Stranger things have happened. According to Deadline, former “ER” executive producers John Wells and Jack Orman are reuniting with NBC for a new high-profile medical drama project.

The network has given a pilot production commitment to “Outbreak,” an hour-long series based on the hit 1995 Warner Bros. feature directed by Wolfgang Petersen and starring Dustin Hoffman, Morgan Freeman, and Rene Russo. This marks one of the biggest commitments to a drama project so far this development cycle.

Co-written by Wells and Orman, “Outbreak” is described as a medical thriller that follows an ensemble of characters as they race to contain a lethal virus before it becomes a global pandemic.

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