(UTV | Colombo) – Ridley Scott will produce and potentially direct either a film or limited series adaptation of Pulitzer-winning author Lawrence Wright’s pandemic novel “The End of October” for his Scott Free Productions label.
Scott made a suggestion to Wright about six years ago for an idea that became the novel which came to market coincidentally at the same time the world has been gripped by the coronavirus pandemic.
In the book the virus is Kongoli Influenza, far more deadly than coronavirus that arises in Asia and spreads like wildfire – quickly killing millions around the world, shutting down economies, schools, airports and creating massive unemployment.
The U.S. government offers an initially slow-footed response and the President’s appeal to stay calm is undermined when he begins bleeding from his eyes during the speech. There’s also a shortage of essential medicine and medical equipment, a societal breakdown with looting and rampant crime, and a race to find a vaccine before an expected second infection wave.
The story follows American microbiologist Henry Parsons who is dispatched by the WHO to investigate an initial outbreak in Indonesia in which the victims are starved of oxygen with the virus also being spread by airborne birds.
Scott previously tried to do a pandemic thriller in 1994 with an adaptation of Richard Preston’s acclaimed Ebola novel “Crisis in the Hot Zone” which would’ve starred Jodie Foster and Robert Redford. That fell apart and was beaten by Wolfgang Petersen’s more fictional feature “Outbreak”. ‘Hot Zone’ was eventually adapted into a semi-decent mini-series with Julianna Marguiles last year – one that barely resembled the book unlike Scott’s much more faithful planned adaptation.
A sizeable donation to front line workers battling the pandemic will be part of whatever deal gets made. Scott Free has numerous productions in the works including Kenneth Branagh’s “Death on the Nile,” Chase Palmer’s “Naked Singularity” and Scott’s own “The Last Duel”.