Lynda Obst to develop TV series on 'Ebola virus' for Fox

Director-producer Ridley Scott and producer Lynda Obst will be developing TV series for Fox on the deadly pathogen, Ebola virus, which will be based on Richard Preston's 1994 non-fiction best-seller 'The Hot Zone.'

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Obst said that he thinks it's the speed with which it kills that makes the disease so frightening and people hoped it would stay in some remote part of the world, but that's a fantasy in the modern world, which makes people one big connected family.

Obst and Scott, who originally conceived the project as a film that Scott would direct for 20th Century Fox starring Jodie Foster, are in conversations to option Preston's latest article and would work it into the series, which spans the history of the disease, including a 1989 incident in which primates at a quarantine facility in Virginia became infected with a mutated version of Ebola.

Obst and Scott have the inside track on the new article because Preston has been working with the pair for the past year on the limited series.

Obst added that a limited series is a great way to do this because you don't have to limit it to a three-act structure like you do with a film.