Steven Soderbergh‘s 2011 thriller CONTAGION was one of his better movies. It successfully translated the procedural nightmare of dealing with an epidemic while not sacrificing quality drama. Instead of making an action movie out of it like OUTBREAK, CONTAGION looked at the path a disease can take from origins to eradication. Some may have found the movie to be a little dry, but I found myself washing my hands for several days after seeing it.
Imagine that spread out over the course of a television season.
Vulture reports that CONTAGION screenwriter Scott Z. Burns envisions the show working as a television series: “It has some of the properties inherently like Homeland and 24 where you can really explore outbreaks and pandemics in interesting ways.”
There definitely would be an audience for a show like that. Whether it follows a single contagion for an entire season or more of a disease of the week format could work depending on the talent involved. At this point, anything would be better than another cop or CSI type show. A network like AMC or HBO could do justice to a series version of CONTAGION. Even without Soderbergh directly involved, a series should definitely look to the movie as a source of inspiration.
What do you think about a CONTAGION series?