Charles Randolph Reunites With ‘Big Short’ Partner Adam McKay on HBO Limited Series About COVID-19 Vaccine Race

Randolph is writing the script for potential series based on “the companies and individuals putting everything on the line to save lives”

Adam McKay Charles Randolph
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Charles Randolph is reuniting with Adam McKay, with whom he won a 2016 Academy Award for co-writing the screenplay for “The Big Short,” for an HBO limited series about the global coronavirus vaccine race.

Randolph is joining the untitled project — which has been in the development stage at the pay TV channel since July 2020, when the hunt for a COVID-19 vaccine was still ongoing — as its writer and will executive produce alongside McKay.

Based on the books, “The First Shot” by Brendan Borrell and “A Shot to Save the World: The Inside Story of the Life-or-Death Race for a COVID-19 Vaccine” by Gregory Zuckerman, the untitled HBO project will tell “the story of the global coronavirus vaccine race,” including “the companies and individuals putting everything on the line to save lives, the fascinating and surprising science that it is based on, and the challenges playing out around politics, access, and safety.”

Randolph is writer and executive produces the potential series alongside McKay and Todd Schulman of Hyperobject Industries, Borrell and Zuckerman.

Should the untitled COVID-19 vaccine race project be ordered to series, it would mark yet another show McKay has at HBO, where he currently executive produces “Succession” and the upcoming Los Angeles Lakers drama “Winning Time.”

Randolph is represented by CAA, Lighthouse Management & Media and Paul Hastings LLP. 

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