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Scott Z. Burns Writing a 'Virus Movie' Script for Soderbergh

by Alex Billington
September 29, 2009
Source: The Playlist

Director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns recently released their film The Informant! the to tune of about $21 million, an impressive opening total. While talking with Creative Screenwriting magazine's Jeff Goldsmith (via The Playlist), Burns revealed that inspired by a scene he was writing for the character Mark Whitacre in The Informant, he developed the idea for a "virus movie" that was pitched as "Traffic meets Outbreak." Sounds like an ensemble thriller about viruses and the way health is addressed in contemporary society. But alas, Burns had to put the project on hold when the swine flu epidemic hit.

"So now I've kind of had to stop because I want to see where it plays out," Burns said regarding the status of the unnamed project. He had finished three months of work and sixty pages before the swine flu hit. He has no interest in making it into a "TV movie" (sounds like he'd rather finish it as a full-fledged studio feature instead) and will wait until "we get a little further down" and see what happens with the swine flu epidemic before continuing with the project. Although we don't know too much about this, it does sound interesting, and I'd love to see Soderbergh take on another Traffic-like movie, whether it's about viruses or otherwise.

Don't get excited, this probably won't be anything like a zombie movie. But I don't think it'll be as bleak as something like Blindness either. We'll let you know if we hear anything new about this, but it sounds like Burns won't get back to it for quite a while. He better hurry up, because when I talked to Soderbergh, he said he only had a few more years in him before he would stop directing forever. Sound like a good project?

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