This year has seen Netflix double-down on prestigious original movies, producing the likes of Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma, Paul Greengrass’ 22 July, and the Coen Brothers’ The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs – a move which could see the streaming service in line for Oscars in 2019. Now the media company has locked in for another glossy drama with a star cast and crew – according to Deadline, Netflix will finance and release Steven Soderbergh’s film The Laundromat, which has been gathering steam through the year and searching for a studio. The film will tell the story of the journalists who worked on the Panama Papers story, with a cast including Gary Oldman, Meryl Streep, Antonio Banderas, David Schwimmer, Riley Keough and Will Forte.
The Panama Papers finance scandal in 2016 saw leaked documents reveal the details of offshore tax havens which allowed wealthy and powerful people to evade tax through various schemes and methods. The story was broken by German journalists Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer, and The Laundromat is set to shoot from a script by Scott Z. Burns, who previous collaborated with Soderbergh on The Informant!, Contagion and Side Effects.
The Laundromat is thought to be shooting before the end of the year, which could see it completed in time for next year’s Oscar race. With that and Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman on the way, it seems Netflix’s efforts to win over the Academy are set to continue.
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