HBO recently greenlit the production of a documentary titled The Perfect Weapon, which is based on the David E. Sanger book of the same name, and is set to follow the “rise of cyber wars between [different] countries.”
The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage and Fear in the Cyber Age’s official synopsis reads:
The Perfect Weapon is the startling inside story of how the rise of cyberweapons transformed geopolitics like nothing since the invention of the atomic bomb. Cyber is now the weapon of choice for democracies, dictators, and terrorists. Two presidents—Bush and Obama—drew first blood with Operation Olympic Games, which used malicious code to blow up Iran’s nuclear centrifuges, and yet America proved remarkably unprepared when its own weapons were stolen from its arsenal and, during President Trump’s first year, turned back on the US and its allies.
Following a similar plot, the upcoming documentary will explore the rise of cyber conflict and how several countries used the technology to gain a competitive edge in international markets while sabotaging each other in the process. With the public’s increasing fear of potential cyber-attacks, the film’s subject will be very topical and just in time to trigger audiences even more before the upcoming 2020 elections.
Exclusive interviews with “top military and intelligence officials” and those in charge of preventive measures for cyber attacks, will be at the heart of the documentary giving several viewpoints on the subject. Non-fiction production house, Ark Media in partnership with John Maggio as series’ director and executive produce, will produce the documentary— Josh Tyrangiel will also serve as an executive producer on the film alongside Sanger.
Maggio has also previously worked with the cabler on his most recent film, Panic: The Untold Story of the 2008 Financial Crisis, which aired on the network back in 2018. His other works include: The Newspaperman: The Life and Times of Ben Bradlee, which also found a home through HBO and was subsequently nominated for the 2018 Producers Guild Award for best documentary feature.