HBO has given the green light to a medical drama pilot that J.J. Abrams is in negotiations to executive produce and possibly direct, says The Hollywood Reporter.
The untitled project, from feature writers Tom Schulman, an Oscar winner for 1989’s Dead Poets Society, and Rafael Yglesias, is a hospital drama that explores the battle against cancer from the patients’ point of view.
It is based on the book “The Anatomy of Hope: How People Prevail in the Face of Illness” by Jerome Groopman, a professor at Harvard Medical School and writer for The New Yorker.
The book, published in 2004, tells the stories of seriously ill patients of Groopman who had relied on their hope to cope with their illness.
Groopman and his wife, Pamela Hartzband, also a professor at Harvard Medical School, will serve as consultants on the show.
