'Contagion' Team Steven Soderbergh And Scott Z. Burns Developing "Philosophical Sequel"
Steven Soderbergh says he and writer Scott Z. Burns are working on a film "that's a kind of philosophical sequel to Contagion."
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'Fake!': Kate Winslet To Star In Cryptocurrency Scheme Movie From 'The Report' Director Scott Z. Burns
Kate Winslet is set to star in Fake!, a new movie from The Report writer/director Scott Z. Burns. Read more about the Fake movie casting here.
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'Contagion' Writer Scott Z. Burns Talks Coronavirus Comparisons: "We Can Be The Cure"
Filmmaker Scott Z. Burns talks about Contagion coronavirus comparisons and what he learned doing research for the prescient 2011 film.
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Marvel's 'Black Widow' Movie And James Bond 25 Hire New Writers
A new Black Widow writer has been hired to polish the script while James Bond is getting an overhaul on the script before production begins.
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American Psychos: How 'The Report' And 'Vice' Investigate The Horrors Of The Bush Administration
Both The Report and Vice look back at the dirty deeds of the Bush Administration in very different ways, but ultimately arrive at the same conclusion.
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'The Report' Review: Adam Driver Impresses In A Quiet, Boiling Political Thriller That Will Infuriate You [Sundance]
Read our The Report review from the 2019 Sundance Film Festival to find out what makes Scott Z. Burns' directorial debut a must-see.
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Scott Z. Burns Attached To Direct 'The Professor And The Bikini Model'
Screenwriter Scott Z. Burns is responsible for scripts such as Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes and The Bourne Ultimatum, but it may be his "trilogy" of films with Steven Soderbergh that really stand out: The Informant!, Side Effects, and Contagion developed a vision of modern communication that is pessimistic, to say the least. Now Burns is attached to direct…
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Steven Soderbergh Heads Off-Broadway With Scott Z. Burns And Chloe Moretz
True to his word, Steven Soderbergh has retired from the movies for now. But it's the last part of that phrase -- "from the movies" -- that's important, because outside of the movies he's remained as busy as ever. First, he transitioned into TV with the HBO film Behind the Candelabra. Then he jumped to…
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Bradley Cooper To Produce Lance Armstrong Biopic, May Star
The intensified scandal over the doping actions of Lance Armstrong have irrevocably tainted his participation in cycling. As you might expect, however, the controversy has only increased the speed at which various producers are trying to put together a film based on his story. One of a few projects in the works about the cancer…
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Armie Hammer Joins Tom Cruise In 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.'
Briefly: Armie Hammer worked with one of the world's biggest movie stars in The Lone Ranger, and now he's set to partner up with another in The Man From U.N.C.L.E., for which James Bond creator Ian Fleming contributed early concepts. Hammer has been added to the cast of Guy Ritchie's new version of the espionage-focused TV…
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Jay Roach To Direct Competing Lance Armstrong Scandal Movie For WB
The story of Lance Armstrong's precipitous fall from grace seems tailor made for the movies, and indeed it's about to get two of them. Back in January, Paramount teamed up with J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot to adapt Cycle of Lies, a biography by Juliet Marcur. Now Warner Bros. is prepping its own version of the…
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'Side Effects' Review: Steven Soderbergh Diagnoses Paranoid Fears In His "Final" Theatrical Outing
Steven Soderbergh, so often adventurous over the course of his career, closes out his theatrical run with the relatively conventional thriller Side Effects. Though the ideas within are familiar, a winding narrative path keeps predictability out of sight, and prevents Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns from ever falling back to one simplistic message. Soderbergh's own skill with…
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Could The 'Contagion' Sequel Mutate Into A Television Series?
Steven Soderbergh's 2011 disease thriller Contagion wasn't exactly crying out for a sequel, but in the light of its strong box office performance of course more than a few execs' minds went there. Warner Bros. quietly began developing a follow-up with writer Scott Z. Burns set to produce, and last October it took a small…
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Sequel Bits: 'A Good Day To Die Hard', 'Star Trek Into Darkness', 'The Muppets... Again', 'Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes', 'Blade Runner 2', 'Wreck-It Ralph 2', 'The Last Exorcism Part II', 'Riddick'
Valentine's Day is just around the corner now, and you know what that means: Fox is ramping up their marketing efforts for their big romantic holiday release, A Good Day to Die Hard. Also after the jump: The Muppets... Again will feature old songs along with new ones Writer Scott Z. Burns discusses Apes and Blade Runner…
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New 'Side Effects' Trailer Is Fraught With Prescription Drug Paranoia
Director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns have spent the last couple years making genre films with prestige casts to explore modern anxieties in a unique manner. The Informant! tackled fears of impotence and mediocrity through the story of a guy who envisions himself as a powerful insder agent. Contagion charted paranoia about the ever-closer…
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Sequel Bits: 'Contagion 2', 'Black Dynamite 2', 'The Hobbit', 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire'
We've got some odds and ends from Sequel-Land after the jump: Warner Bros. is seeking writers for Contagion 2 Will Black Dynamite 2 be like Blazing Saddles? Ian McKellan almost declined to do The Hobbit See new photos from Catching Fire's Georgia set There are films designed from the get-go with potential sequels in mind, and…
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'Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes' Sequel Gets A New Writer
Rise of the Planet of the Apes was one of the biggest surprises of 2011. Directed by relative newcomer Rupert Wyatt and delving back into a franchise that most people felt had long since died, the movie's high quality helped it break out as a undeniable hit, grossing $176 million domestically. As tends to be the…
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Casting Bits: Vinessa Shaw In 'The Bitter Pill;' Ray Liotta In 'Better Living Through Chemistry;' And Stanley Tucci In 'Your Voice In My Head'
One of the last two films Steven Soderbergh plans to shoot before retiring from directing is The Bitter Pill, a thriller scripted by Scott Z. Burns (The Informant!, Contagion) that follows a troubled and highly medicated woman (Rooney Mara) who is dealing with her anxiety pending the release of her husband (Channing Tatum) from prison.…
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Steven Soderbergh's 'Side Effects' Gains Catherine Zeta-Jones, Loses Financier Megan Ellison
There are some changes going on with Steven Soderbergh's planned film Side Effects. The past couple months have seen reports of Soderbergh ditching The Man From UNCLE and taking up the Side Effects script by UNCLE and Contagion screenwriter Scott Z. Burns. In the past couple weeks there have been reports that Megan Ellison's Annapurna…
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Blake Lively, Channing Tatum, And Jude Law To Star In Steven Soderbergh's 'The Side Effects'; Megan Ellison To Finance
This month's Haywire marks the first of two collaborations between Steven Soderbergh and Channing Tatum we'll be seeing this year, the other one being this summer's Magic Mike, and it seems we'll have another to look forward to next year as well. After toying with the idea of teaming up for Warner Bros.' The Man From…
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Summit May Distribute Steven Soderbergh's Thriller 'Bitter Pill;' Plot Details Revealed
For a guy who is about to retire, Steven Soderbergh keeps finding new projects. The latest, and very likely the last new one to be announced, is Bitter Pill, a script by Soderbergh's Contagion and The Informant! screenwriter Scott Z. Burns. That's the same screenwriter with whom Soderbergh was working on The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,…
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Steven Soderbergh Drops 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.'
You may have followed the breadcrumb trail of casting reports for Steven Soderbergh's The Man From U.N.C.L.E. up to this point, but here's the thing: it is no longer Steven Soderbergh's The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Warner Bros. has worked for years to make a new film version of the old cold war TV spy series,…
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Screenwriter Says David Fincher's '20,000 Leagues Under The Sea' Will Differ Greatly From Verne's Version
In May of last year, we started hearing that David Fincher might direct Disney's new version of the classic Jules Verne tale 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, about three men who find themselves 'rescued' by Captain Nemo, pilot of the high-tech and very secret submarine the Nautilus. Several new versions have been developed in the…
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David Fincher Confirmed For '20,000 Leagues Under The Sea'
Back in May, we wrote that Disney had approached David Fincher to direct an remake of the classic 1954 film 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. At the time they were still in "negotiations." Well, according to the Los Angeles Times, Disney has now confirmed that David Fincher is "working on" 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. …
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David Fincher To Direct 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea
File this one under the "it came out of no where" department: Walt Disney Pictures has hired David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club) to direct 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. You didn't see that one coming, did you? Fincher doing a four-quadrant family action movie for Disney? Apparently, Fincher has developed a new take on the…
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Gwyneth Paltrow Joins Soderbergh's Contagion
Brief news on Contagion, the recently announced Steven Soderberg viral thriller penned by Scott Z. Burns. The film already has a hell of a cast: repeating Soderbergh star Matt Damon plus Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard and Jude Law are all in the lineup. Now Gwyneth Paltrow has joined as well, making this a cast that…
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Steven Soderbergh Puts Off Liberace In Favor Of Contagion, A Viral Outbreak Thriller
Steven Soderbergh is putting off his Liberace biopic in favor of something with a little more heat and conventional appeal. Instead of Liberace, this fall Soderbergh will now shoot a script called Contagion by his The Informant! writer Scott Z. Burns. Said to be "an action-thriller about the outbreak of a deadly virus," the script…
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