Eric Charbonneau/Invision/AP Images;Todd Williamson/Getty ImagesThe international nightmare that is the Ebola scare is far from over, but we're already getting a TV show about it.
File this one under: way too soon. According to The Hollywood Reporter, producer Lynda Obst and director/producer Ridley Scott are teaming up for a limited series for Fox TV Studios based on Richard Preston's 1994 best-selling book The Hot Zone.
But here's the weird part: Obst and Scott have actually been working on this project for 20 years. They optioned the rights over two decades ago to adapt the book, and when the current outbreak, which is the deadliest manifestation of the disease to date, emerged a few months ago in West Africa, the project suddenly seemed timely.
"I think it's the speed with which it kills that makes the disease so frightening," Obst told THR. "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."
Ebola kills roughly half of the people who get it, and so far Ebola has killed more than 4,400 people in Africa, and it recently hit the United States. One victim in Texas has already died and two nurses who took care of that patient have tested positive for the disease.
The Ebola scare in the US has spread exponentially when it was discovered that people with Ebola flew on airplanes before they discovered they had the disease, prompting many to worry that more cases will pop up soon.
Do you think it's too soon to create a TV show about Ebola?