Contagion could become a TV series, convince you of your imminent death on a weekly basis

By Sean O'Neal | February 4, 2013 | 4:55pm

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Much as the story of your own bout with the flu remains fascinating to coworkers with every retelling, Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 pandemic thriller Contagion could be a tale worth revisiting again and again, even beyond just rewinding Gwyneth Paltrow’s death scene or compiling your sneeze fetish supercuts. Its screenwriter Scott Z. Burns definitely thinks so, telling Coming Soon that he and director Steven Soderbergh are discussing a TV series based on the film about a worldwide viral outbreak that proves fatal to our world’s most famous actors. “It has some of the properties inherently like Homeland and 24 where you can really explore outbreaks and pandemics in interesting ways. Like this story, they take you to unexpected places, whether it's drug companies or governments or scientists or people with political agendas,” Burns said of the many angles one could take to make viewers feel even more paranoid about dying.

Of course, Contagion: The Series is just in the planning stages for now, but the success of the film—and the current popularity of this whole “flu” trend—could definitely translate to a green light someday. And then you’ll be able to enjoy Contagion every week while sitting inside your plastic-wrapped house and slowly flaying yourself, because the skin is where germs live.