Universal Global Television and Patrick Macmanus's Littleton Road Productions have acquired the television rights to Annie Jacobsen's forthcoming novel Biological War: A Scenario after a bidding war, according to Variety.

The project will be taken out to buyers — meaning the producers will pitch the series to networks and streaming platforms in the coming weeks, rather than heading straight to one outlet. No broadcaster or platform is attached yet.

Macmanus and Jacobsen will serve as co-creators and executive producers on the series. Kelly Funke rounds out the executive producing team alongside them.

Jacobsen is a Pulitzer Prize finalist, journalist, and bestselling author whose 2024 book Nuclear War: A Scenario imagined a nuclear attack on the United States minute by minute. That earlier work is already in its own adaptation pipeline: Legendary Entertainment is producing a feature film version with Denis Villeneuve attached to direct. Jacobsen's official website now lists Biological War: A Scenario alongside Nuclear War: A Scenario in her work catalogue, confirming the new title as part of her "scenario" series of reported, narrative non-fiction.

For Macmanus, this adds to a growing slate at Universal Global Television. He created Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy for Peacock and is also developing an adaptation of John Grisham's novel The Boys From Biloxi at the studio. His work tends toward high-stakes, real-story drama — which fits the terrain of Jacobsen's writing.

What makes this one move quickly is the combination. Jacobsen's Nuclear War: A Scenario drew wide attention for its granular, sourced depiction of how a nuclear exchange could unfold. A Biological War adaptation brings the same approach to a different threat, and the bidding war — multiple outlets or studios competing for the rights — signals that buyers see an audience for it. The pace from page to screen is brisk, even before the book itself has its full public rollout.

The series does not yet have a writer's room, a director, or a cast attached. The next concrete step is the pitch to buyers, which Variety reports will happen in the upcoming weeks.