J.J. Abrams & ‘The Other Two’s Chris Kelly Developing Half-Hour ‘They Both Die At The End’ At HBO

HBO is developing a half-hour series based on Adam Silvera’s book They Both Die at the End with J.J. Abrams and The Other Two co-creator Chris Kelly.

It is the latest Abrams project with the premium cable broadcaster after his sci-fi fantasy drama Demimonde landed a series pickup last year. His firm Bad Robot Productions also makes Westworld and is producing the forthcoming horror drama Lovecraft Country with Jordan Peele.

They Both Die at the End is set in the near-future where everyone receives a bureaucratic phone call notifying them at the start of their last day on Earth. It follows a seemingly disparate group of people as they live their scary, funny, weird, hopeful, romantic, and unexpected final hours, all connected through the two teenage boys at the heart of the novel. The New York Times–bestselling book was published by HarperCollins in 2017 and is Silvera’s latest after History Is All You Left Me and More Happy Than Not.

Bad Robot Productions is producing in association with Warner Bros Television. Abrams and Ben Stephenson will exec produce alongside Kelly with Bad Robot’s Rachel Rusch co-exec producer.

Kelly is fresh from the launch of Comedy Central’s hit The Other Two, which has been renewed for a second season, and wrote and directed Other People, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2016 as well as being a former co-head writer on SNL. He is repped by WME and 3 Arts Entertainment, while Silvera is represented by UTA and Janklow & Nesbit Associates.