Gale Anne Hurd, executive producer of AMC’s The Walking Dead, is reported to be developing a series about the mysterious Area 51. She and her production company Valhalla Entertainment have optioned the rights of the book Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base by Annie Jacobsen.

Karl Gajdusek (Dead Like Me) has been brought in to write the script for the hour-long drama series and will act as showrunner, as well as serving as executive producer with Hurd. Jacobsen will act as a consulting producer.

Deadline first broke the news, and reported this about the project and the book:

[The project] will follow two men working on the base who are thrust into danger when they uncover secrets that the government will protect at any cost… Jacobsen interviewed 19 men who served the base and another 55 who had links to Area 51, including living and working there for extended periods. The book chronicles what has really gone on in the Nevada desert, from testing nuclear weapons to building super-secret, supersonic jets to pursuing the War on Terror. Area 51 was published in May and spent 8 weeks on the NY Times Bestseller List.

Area 51 is expected to be shopped to the networks shortly.

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