Steven Soderbergh‘s “retirement” from filmmaking didn’t last long, and he’s dived headfirst back into the work, releasing two films in the last eight months; Logan Lucky and Unsane, the latter of which was directed entirely on his iPhone. He’s keeping the filmmaking hot streak alive, and has already set up his next film, which will focus on the infamous Panama Papers incident.
The film will be titled The Laundromat, and will revolve around the scandal that became the largest corporate data leak in history, seeing over 11.5 million documents released which revealed how big corporations stash their cash. Soderbergh has been attached to a potential movie revolving around the story since 2016, but this is the first confirmation that he will direct.
The title refers to the Panamanian law firm that laundered the money for over 200,000 foreign entities, Mossack Fonesca. The film will be based on the book Secrecy, written by journalist Jake Bernstein, with the script being penned by Scott Z. Burns, who previously collaborated with Soderbergh on the environmental thriller, Contagion.
Per The Playlist, a “powerhouse cast” is waiting in the wings to be announced, and the film is planning to shoot in the autumn across six countries. It’s unlikely that Soderbergh uses his iPhone to shoot a project of this epic scale.
The film has been compared the Academy Award-winning Spotlight, as a “journalistic exposé of illicit money, political corruption, and fraud on a global scale”.
So that’s all incredibly exciting, but while The Laundromat will be the next project Soderbergh directs, it likely won’t be the next film we see from him. Reports have also emerged that another movie helmed by the prolific director, titled High Flying Bird, is basically already completed.
Reportedly it stars Andre Holland, Zazie Beetz and Kyle MacLachlan and is a sports drama with a script written by Tarell Alvin McCraney (Moonlight). It was shot in February, and by all accounts is already cut together and practically ready to go.
This incredibly prolific output makes Soderbergh’s 2013 decision to walk away from the business (which admittedly only last four months) seem all the more strange, and thankfully he changed his mind. He’s a great filmmaker willing to dabble in various genres, and that immediately makes The Laundromat one of the most anticipated films of the next few years, and that’s before we even know the cast.
#Peace.Love.TheLaundromat
