"The Hot Zone" author Richard Preston gets candid about a failed 1990s movie adaptation that was once set to star A-listers Robert Redford and Jodie Foster before falling apart.

Directing a new Black Mirror film gives Jodie Foster the chance to look back at her own upbringing. The Hollywood titan talks to Tim Adams

Last week Charlie Brooker was recalling for me the moment he learned Jodie Foster would direct an episode of Black Mirror, his inspired series of one-off dramas about the ways our gadgets are colonising the idea of “human”. Brooker had written a script for the new series in which a neurotic single mother uses technology to spy on her young daughter and keep her safe from the world. The Netflix people suggested they tried the script out on the two-time Oscar-winning actor.

Brooker has had considerable global success with Black Mirror but still, the thought of working with Foster, “an actual icon”, made him come over, he says, “all British and starstruck”. He turned to his co-showrunner for the series, Annabel Jones. “We were like: ‘You’re kidding, right? You are going to try Jodie bloody Foster? Yeah right, of course you are.’”

'Hotel Artemis' star Jodie Foster takes the WIRED Autocomplete Interview and answers the internet's most searched questions about herself. How old was Jodie when she filmed 'Taxi Driver'? Is she married to Mel Gibson? How many Oscars does she have? Does she have children? An accent? Siblings? Is she vegan? Is she a genius? What's her IQ? Was she ever on the show 'Bonanza'? What about "Gunsmoke"? How about "Bad News Bears"? Wasn't she on "Seinfeld"? What's her real name?