'How to Survive a Plague' to Become ABC Miniseries

David France's acclaimed documentary How to Survive a Plague is being developed into ABC's first miniseries in more than five years, reports the Hollywood Reporter:

Ideally, the scripted adaptation, which is in its early days of development, will go broader and deeper. “We know 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,” France tells The Hollywood Reporter.

His producing partner Howard Gertler echoes that sentiment. "We’re excited about the opportunity to delve into more of the personal stories of the characters that you followed in the documentary," he says. "People got a sense from the doc that many of the activists were soldiers drafted into a war that perhaps they were not ready to fight but that they had trained themselves for, and we really want to show a wide audience how that happened."

France had been toying with the idea of a TV adaptation for more than a year, but at that time the miniseries genre was of little appeal to networks.

And there's more footage to be revealed:

Much like the film, the mini-series -- which will count France, Gertler and new addition John Lyons as executive producers -- will offer unfettered access to an array of never-before-seen footage from the 1980s and ’90s. "These activists may have had to train themselves for the battle, but they were incredibly media savvy and were constantly filming everything," explains Lyons. "So there's this treasure trove of this archival material, which we think can be cleverly introduced into the storytelling."

Peter Staley Eulogizes AIDS Activist Spencer Cox: VIDEO

On Sunday, a memorial was held at NYC's Cutting Room for AIDS activist and ACT UP spokesman Spencer Cox, who died in mid-December of AIDS-related causes.

Cox was a member of ACT UP's Treatment & Data committee and later co-founded the Treatment Action Group (TAG), becoming a "citizen scientist" who wrote the drug trial protocol proposed for testing protease inhibitors in 1995 which was adopted by the pharmaceutical industry.

Cox was featured in David France's award-winning documentary How to Survive a Plague, as was his friend and fellow ACT UP activist Peter Staley. Staley delivered a movingeulogy for Cox at this weekend's memorial, called "Grief is a Sword".

Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...

And there's a transcript on HuffPost.

Ed Koch Wants Larry Kramer to Get Presidential Medal of Freedom

Ed Koch reviews How to Survive a Plague but fails to mention his own failed response to the AIDS crisis and its role in the film. Koch suggests, too, that Larry Kramer and other AIDS activists should get the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and Kramer responds in the post's comments, calling the closeted Koch "a murderer of his very own people."

Koch writes:

The person who makes the greatest impact in the film because of his superb speaking ability is Peter Staley. In his New York Times review of this movie, Stephen Holden describes Staley as: "A former closeted Wall Street bond trader with H.I.V. who left his job and helped found the Treatment Action Group, an offshoot of Act Up. Self-taught in the science of AIDS, the group collaborated with pharmaceutical companies like Merck in the development of new drugs."
 
Others named in the Times' review as major leaders of Act Up, which began its activities in 1987, are Larry Kramer, Robert Rafsky and Ann Northrop, all of whom appear in the film. I don't know if these individuals were ever honored by the White House for what they did in fighting government and powerful corporations. If not, I urge President Obama to do so by presenting them and other leaders recognized by Act Up with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Staley responds, in Poz:

Amazing how he fails to mention his own shameful role in this film, or this history...

And Larry Kramer responds, in the Poz post's comments:

What is this evil man up to as he approaches his death? Is he trying to make up to us? National Medals of Freedom from the White House! Would these provide a big enough enema to clean out his rotten insides? We must never forget that this man was an active participant in helping us to die, in murdering us. Call it what you will, that is what Edward Koch was, a murderer of his very own people. There is no way to avoid knowing that now. The facts have long since been there staring us in the face. If we don't see them, then we are as complicit as he.

How to Survive a Plague: VIDEO

How To Survive a Plague, David France's chronicle of ACT-UP and the battle to find life-saving drugs at the height of the AIDS crisis, gets an official trailer today.

Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...