Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 pandemic thriller Contagion hit the top of the streaming charts back in 2020 after coronavirus forced the world into lockdown (what happened to movies being escapism?!) and it appears part two is on the way.
Soderbergh revealed that he’s re-teaming with screenwriter Scott Burns, who penned the script of the original movie.
"I've got a project in development that Scott Burns is working with me on, that's a kind of philosophical sequel to Contagion but in a different context," Soderbergh told the Happy Sad Confused podcast.
The all-star ensemble cast of the 2011 movie includes Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, and Gwyneth Paltrow. It follows the spread of a worldwide virus transmitted by respiratory droplets, attempts to identify and contain the disease, and a breakdown in social order. Cheerful stuff.
"You'll kind of look at the two of them as kind of paired but very different hair colours,” Soderbergh continued. “So, Scott and I had been talking about, 'So, what's the next iteration of a Contagion-type story?' We have been working on that. We should probably hotfoot it a little bit."
Burns consulted with the World Health Organisation when writing the original script. Back in March, when the pandemic started, he told Slate: "The scientists I spoke to, and there were a lot of them, all said that this was a matter of when, not if. So, I guess my feeling as someone who believes in science is that when scientists tell us those things we would do well to listen."
If you’d prefer to watch something that’ll take your mind off the news, instead (we don’t blame you) check out our list of the best Netflix comedies you can stream at the moment.
