It appears releasing two movies (“Presence” and “Black Bag”), wrapping manufacturing on one other (“The Christophers”), and writing a e-book on the making of “Jaws” isn’t sufficient to maintain Steven Soderbergh busy. Talking in a latest interview with Selection, Soderbergh shared that he and “Contagion” screenwriter Scott Z. Burns have mentioned placing collectively a sequel to their 2011 public well being thriller, and the topic of microplastics struck a chord.
“There’s actually a case to be made, particularly within the West, for the long-term results, environmentally, of what we eat, what we breathe. As is well-known, now we have plastic in our blood now. It’s in our brains,” mentioned Soderbergh. “It is a new factor that’s received to have a fairly critical impact. There’s numerous potentialities.”
“Contagion” options an all-star solid that features Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Legislation, Laurence Fishburne, Marion Cotillard, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Elliott Gould. A relative success critically and financially upon launch, the movie discovered new reputation amid the COVID-19 pandemic, however Soderbergh doesn’t wish to make a simple money seize and replay the hits with a sequel.
“It must be about one thing new, but additionally one thing that’s believable,” he mentioned. “A part of the rationale folks have been capable of finding resonance in that film when it opened, after which 10 years later when the pandemic occurred, was it was rooted in actuality. We’ve received to discover a new gimmick, but it surely’s received to be one thing that folks go, ‘Oh, that might occur.’”
One other essential facet to Soderbergh is creating not solely one thing related, however one thing that entertains and does what a film is meant to do.
“It might should be one thing that’s happening proper now that simply wants a tiny little shove to show into an enormous factor,” Soderbergh mentioned. “To me, ‘Contagion’ was a horror film. So the trick can be, can you discover one thing as scary that’s actual?”
Soderbergh has been considering a “Contagion” follow-up since its newfound reputation in 2020. In an interview with the Los Angeles Instances throughout that point, he shared that for as correct because the movie was in portraying how a pandemic can happen, he was shocked by how many individuals acted so foolishly when the true factor occurred.
“There’s a variety of actually fascinating human conduct that we didn’t even take into consideration once we have been doing this,” mentioned Soderbergh. “It’s only a reminder of how deeply irrational we’re. Once we’re put into some type of fear-threat house, we develop into deeply illogical. It’s loopy to witness.”
“Black Bag” is at the moment in theaters from Focus Options.