this campaign used The Hot Zone as a method of justifying increased intervention in the global phenomena of disease. The Hot Zone elicited a major response by the World Health Organization (WHO) by shedding light on the Ebola Zaire outbreak. Teams of experts were immediately released. Many countries tightened their borders, issued warnings to custom officials, quarantined travelers, and issued travel advisories. In his blurb, horror writer Stephen King called the first chapter "one of the most horrifying things I've read in my whole life". When asked whether any book "scared the pants off you" writer Suzanne Collins answered "The Hot Zone, by Richard Preston. I just read it a few weeks ago. Still recovering." The Hot Zone has received criticism for sensationalizing the effects of Ebola virus. In their memoir Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC (1996), former CDC scientists Joseph B. McCormick and Susan Fisher-Hoch lambasted Preston for claiming that Ebola dissolves organs, stating that although it causes great blood loss in tissues the organs remain structurally intact. McCormick and Fisher-Hoch also dispute Preston's version of the CDC's actions in the Reston virus incident. In an interview about his book Ebola: The Natural and Human History of a Deadly Virus (2014), David Quammen claimed that The Hot Zone had "vivid, gruesome details" that gave an "exaggerated idea of Ebola over the years" causing "people to view this disease as though it was some sort of preternatural phenomenon". Dramatizations Failed film adaptation In January 1993, 20th Century Fox producer Lynda Obst won a bidding war for the film rights to Preston's 1992 New Yorker article, which was still being transitioned into book form. In response to being outbid, Warner Bros. producer Arnold Kopelson immediately began working on a similarly themed production. This competing film, titled Outbreak (and released in March 1995), was only vaguely inspired by Preston's work, but would ultimately be a factor in the collapse of Fox's planned production, Crisis in The Hot Zone. Directors considered for Crisis in The Hot Zone included Wolfgang Petersen (who would later direct Outbreak), Michael Mann, and Ridley Scott. Scott eventually signed on to direct the film in February 1994. Screenwriter James V. Hart was also signed to adapt the book. In late April 1994, Fox announced they had signed Robert Redford and Jodie Foster to star in the film. Crisis in The Hot Zone, however, was never made. Foster