For someone who planned to retire from filmmaking several years ago, Steven Soderbergh continues to be on a roll. Fresh from launching his basketball drama High Flying Bird on Netflix at the start of 2019, he’s already back with his second film of the year – The Laundromat, also headed for the streaming service. This one boasts a major cast with the likes of Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman, and Antonio Banderas on board. The first trailer has just arrived online – take a look here.
This one stars Streep as Ellen, a woman who faces a personal tragedy compounded by a fake insurance scam. Following up the case herself, the threads lead back to Oldman and Banderas’s Jurgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca. The film is based on the Panama Papers scandal that broke in a major data breach in 2015. If that all sounds serious and po-faced, The Laundromat looks anything but – from this trailer, the tone seems similar to Adam McKay’s The Big Short and Vice, offering a comedy-tinged, energetic, fourth-wall-breaking way in to a dramatic topic that might otherwise seem impenetrable.
The Laundromat will hit Netflix on 18 October – and will receive a limited UK cinema release from 27 September.