AIDS Documentary May Become ABC Miniseries

The acclaimed documentary “How to Survive a Plague,” about the genesis of the AIDS epidemic, could become a television miniseries. The Hollywood Reporter said Thursday that ABC Studios, a production company owned by the Disney/ABC Television Group, had bought the rights to the documentary so it could develop a dramatic miniseries about HIV-positive young men who, as the title implies, beat the medical odds.

David France, who co-wrote and directed the documentary, said, “We’d like it to be an extended story that’s not just about AIDS and what AIDS wrought, but about this tremendous civil rights movement that grew from the ashes of AIDS and the dawn of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement.” He said that ABC Studios was a logcal home for such a miniseries: “ABC is the network of ‘Roots.’”

“How to Survive a Plague” was nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary feature, but lost last Sunday to “Searching for Sugar Man.”