This week, Jeff Goldsmith sits down with Scott Z. Burns, the writer of Steven Soderburgh’s The Informant! A lot of the first part of the interview is devoted to breaking-in stories, which are pretty fascinating due to Scott’s scatter-shot career; between his work on The Inconvenient Truth, Californication, and The Bourne Ultimatum, there are a lot of good tales to tell.
The initial inspiration for the film was the episode of This American Life where the host Ira Glass interviews the author of the novel telling the story of Mark Whitacre, Kurt Eichenwald. Anyone who wants a primer on the source material of The Informant! before buying a ticket should definitely check out this brilliant re-released episode.
Probably most unique element in the mix is the fact that Soderbergh decided to shoot Burns’s full ~150 page script and do a lot of work in post-production, which is definitely outside the norm. The script is pretty extensive and includes a lot of great content that was cut, so if you’re hungry for more, there’s plenty to eat.
Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews screenwriter Scott Z. Burns about The Informant!
Runtime -1:17:02
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