Traffic is a
2000 crime drama film directed by
Steven Soderbergh and written by
Stephen Gaghan. It explores the intricacies of the
illegal drug trade from a number of perspectives: a user, an enforcer, a politician and a trafficker, whose lives affect each other even though they do not meet. The film is an adaptation of the British
Channel 4 television series
Traffik.
Originally planned to be made with
20th Century Fox, the film was shelved unless actor
Harrison Ford agreed to star and significant changes to the screenplay were made. Soderbergh was subsequently turned down by all other major Hollywood studios because of three-hour running time and the subject matter.
USA Films agreed to finance and offered the filmmakers more money than Fox. The director operated the camera himself and adopted a distinctive look for each story so that audiences could tell them apart and to avoid any confusion.
Traffic was a commercial success with a worldwide total of $207.5 million, well above its estimated $48 million budget. It was also well-received critically and earned numerous awards, including four
Academy Awards for
Best Director,
Best Supporting Actor,
Best Film Editing, and
Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2004,
USA Network ran a
miniseries—also called
Traffic—based on the movie and the earlier television series.