As coronavirus spreads across the globe there have been comparisons made to the 2011 movie Contagion. The plot saw a virus, much deadlier than COVID-19, transmit via fomites as attempts to contain the disease are made and social order is lost until a vaccine is found. Now screenwriter Scott Z Burns, who most recently worked on the script for the now-postponed No Time To Die, has revealed how the scientists he consulted about the movie predicted coronavirus was inevitable.
The Slate asked Burns how he felt about a script he wrote a decade ago becoming more or less true.
The screenwriter said: “Well, obviously, you know, it’s very upsetting to see people getting sick and dying.
“The part of me that is a human being is more struck by this than the part of me that is a filmmaker.
“That being said, it has been very strange to me, whether on social media or in conversations with friends, that people will say to me, ‘This is uncanny how similar it is.’”
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But Burns was hardly shocked by current affairs being compared to his movie.
He added: “And I don’t find it to be that surprising, because the scientists I spoke to, and there were a lot of them, all said that this was a matter of when, not if.
“So, I guess my feeling as someone who believes in science is that when scientists tell us those things we would do well to listen.”
Since the end of January, there has been a resurgence in popularity for movies like Contagion and Outbreak.
Both films have been climbing the iTunes Top Movies list in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, author Stephen King has shut down coronavirus comparisons to the pandemic in his novel The Stand.
The 72-year-old tweeted: “No, coronavirus is NOT like THE STAND.”
“It’s not anywhere near as serious.”
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King added: “It’s eminently survivable.
“Keep calm and take all reasonable precautions.”
The Stand is the author’s longest novel to date.
Written in 1978, the post-apocalyptic horror saw 99 per cent of the world’s population killed off by a form of influenza that had been modified for use in biological warfare.
A new TV adaptation is in the works and its star James Marsden couldn’t help making coronavirus comparisons.
He told Variety and iHeart’s The Big Ticket podcast: “There are scenes in the beginning of The Stand where as soon as you see someone who looks normal sneeze or cough into their arm, everyone’s eyes in the room darts towards them.
“I see that in public now, and everyone kind of takes a few steps away from the person.
“It’s crazy. We’re in full panic mode right now. Obviously, no one would ever want to capitalise on something as horrible as this, but it certainly makes it relevant.”
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