Alan Ball, Oprah Winfrey Bring “Immortal Life” to HBO

Variety reports today that Alan Ball will join forces with Oprah Winfrey to bring The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks to HBO. Based on a non-fiction by Rebecca Skloot, “Immortal Life” tells the story of a poor Baltimore mother of five (Lacks) who died of cervical cancer in 1951 at age 31.

Doctors at Johns Hopkins removed cancerous cells from her body — without her family’s knowledge — that wound up leading to significant breakthroughs in medical research, ranging from aiding the development of the cure for polio to AIDS-related treatments.

Alan received a copy of the pre-publication book a while ago and immediately sought the rights for producing a, HBO movie. Winfrey’s Harpo Films began seeking out the rights as well and when Alan and Harpo’s Kate Forte realized they had the same goals in mind for the story, they decided a collaboration was the best route.

HBO is also excited about the project as it’s a pretty high priority on their list. It sounds like a fascinating story and we’ll be watching out for it. Alan Ball, Kate Forte, Peter Macoissi and Oprah will executive produce and they’ve already begun the process of searching for the screenwriter. We will keep you posted as to premiere date and time as we hear of it. Stay tuned!