Could We Interest You In 'Contagion 2: Bird Flu Boogaloo'?

Did you see Outbreak 2: Bird Flu Boogaloo Contagion when it was out in theaters last September? Apparently there’s a market for watching Gwyneth Paltrow catch avian flu, because the film grossed $135M worldwide on a budget of around $60M. This means it probably just barely turned a profit after paying marketing fees and giving theaters their cut. But let it never be said studios won’t milk even a barely profitable potential franchise for all they can, because TheFilmStage reports Warner Brothers is testing the waters for a Contagion sequel, and I assume by “testing the waters” they mean “plugging ‘bird flu‘ into Google Trends and seeing how many people still give a sh-t”.

The Wrap reports that the studio has put out an “open writing assignment” for a sequel to Contagion. Essentially what that means is they don’t really have a story or much of an idea, and are looking to screenwriters to find a way to make it work. Scott Z. Burns, who wrote the first Contagion, will be producing Contagion 2 The Grave (a working title that I just made up) and it’s unclear whether director Steven Soderbergh will return behind the camera. But considering his retirement plans, we doubt it. [TheFilmStage]

If you’ve ever wanted to write an unnecessary sequel to the bird flu version of Outbreak and then send your unsolicited manuscript to a studio where it will never actually be read, now’s your chance! Dreams can come true.

We won’t be pitching any ideas for this one, but we’d like to inform Warner to feel free to use the poster above. No charge. I just felt compelled to make it. What can I say? People wearing grope helmets is a theme today.