Steven Soderbergh has tackled the world of drug trafficking, prescription medicine, and the sex trade among others. Basically he's not one to shy away from movies that explore the dark corners of some of the world's most powerful industries on the planet, and so it shouldn't be surprising that the financial world is next on his list. Deadline reports Soderbergh will produce and possibly direct a movie based on the Panama Papers, a huge scandal that broke just a few months ago.
If you don't know what the Panama Papers was all about, in short it concerned leaked documents surrounding the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, which helped the rich and powerful legally hide trillions of dollars from the government, mostly through offshore accounts and shell corporations. A number of celebrities got wrapped up in the scandal, as well, including Emma Watson who was a client of Mossack Fonseca. There's not enough magic in the world to hide all of that Harry Potter money, it seems.
This would appear to be right up Soderbergh's alley and could easily be developed in the same interconnected style as Traffic, which won him Best Director back in 2001. The film will be penned by regular collaborator Scott Z. Burns (Contagion), based on the forthcoming book, Secrecy World, by Jake Bernstein. Soderbergh's keeping busy since ending his short-lived "retirement" from features. Next up is the crime flick Logan Lucky which begins shooting this fall.
