Alan Ball Partners with Oprah Winfrey for HBO Movie

Alan Ball is partnering with Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Films for an HBO movie based on The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Variety reports.

The nonfiction book, published in February, focuses on Lacks, a mother of five who died from cervical cancer in 1951 and whose cancerous cells were used for groundbreaking research following her death.

What will air on Oprah's OWN network?

The cells used — removed without her family's knowledge — helped doctor's at John Hopkins develop a cure for polio and contributed to AIDS-related treatment. The book devotes time to both the science behind these discoveries and the effect Lacks' death and the subsequent medical research had on her family.

Ball, the executive producer behind HBO series Six Feet Under and True Blood, and Harpo are set to begin recruiting a screenwriter.

"I fell in love with it," Ball told Variety of the book."I thought it would be a perfect movie for HBO."