Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas in the madcap trailer for Steven Soderbergh’s ‘The Laundromat’

Erik Anderson August 28, 2019

We have the first trailer for the Venice and Toronto-bound The Laundromat, a thoroughly madcap tale from Academy Award winner Steven Soderbergh (Traffic) based on the secret world of shady banking and the Panama Papers.

When her idyllic vacation takes an unthinkable turn, Ellen Martin (Academy Award winner Meryl Streep) begins investigating a fake insurance policy, only to find herself down a rabbit hole of questionable dealings that can be linked to a Panama City law firm and its vested interest in helping the world’s wealthiest citizens amass even larger fortunes. The charming — and very well-dressed — founding partners Jürgen Mossack (Academy Award winner Gary Oldman) and Ramón Fonseca (Golden Globe nominee Antonio Banderas) are experts in the seductive ways shell companies and offshore accounts help the rich and powerful prosper. They are about to show us that Ellen’s predicament only hints at the tax evasion, bribery and other illicit absurdities that the super wealthy indulge in to support the world’s corrupt financial system.

Zipping through a kaleidoscope of comic detours in China, Mexico, Africa (via Los Angeles) and the Caribbean en route to 2016’s Panama Papers publication — where journalists revealed the secret, leaked documents of Mossack Fonseca’s high-profile patrons — The Laundromat is directed by Academy Award winner Steven Soderbergh (Ocean’s Eleven, Magic Mike, High Flying Bird) with a screenplay by Scott Z. Burns (The Informant!, The Report), adapted from “Secrecy World” by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Jake Bernstein. The film is produced by Lawrence Grey, Gregory Jacobs, Michael Sugar and Burns with a cast that includes Jeffrey Wright, Melissa Rauch, Jeff Michalski, Jane Morris, Robert Patrick, David Schwimmer, Cristela Alonzo, Larry Clarke, Will Forte, Chris Parnell, Nonso Anozie, Larry Wilmore, Jessica Allain, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Matthias Schoenaerts, Rosalind Chao, Kunjue Li, Ming Lo, with James Cromwell and Sharon Stone.

The Laundromat will have a platform release starting September 27 in Los Angeles, New York and the UK, additional engagements in U.S. and international cities will rollout October 4 and October 11. The film will be released globally on Netflix on October 18 with an expanded theatrical release in the U.S. and international markets.

Directed by: Steven Soderbergh

Produced by: Lawrence Grey, Gregory Jacobs, Michael Sugar, Scott Z. Burns

Executive Producers: Michael Polaire, Douglas Urbanski, Ben Everard, Michael Bloom, Adam Pincus, Jake Bernstein

Written by: Scott Z. Burns

Based on “Secrecy World: Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite” by Jake Bernstein

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.