Contagion

Contagion Billboard Will Make Your Skin Crawl

And you thought that Contagion poster with Gwyneth Paltrow was scary.

To promote the epidemic thriller, Warner Bros. grew a billboard using two giant Petri dishes. Over a period of several days, the fungi and bacteria specimens spelled out the name of the movie and formed biohazard symbols. Very cool, but also pretty gross. While this video of the process is completely safe for work, it may not be safe for lunchtime.

Box Office Results: Contagion Infectious with Movie Fans

Steven Soderbergh's Career Retirement Downgraded to a "Sabbatical"

Matt Damon first revealed the proposed retirement of Steven Soderbergh at the end of last year. Since then, Soderbergh has dismissed his retirement talk, and other times, confirmed them, as he (mostly) did when speaking to The New York Times last week.

I’m interested in exploring another art form while I have the time and ability to do so. I’ll be the first person to say if I can’t be any good at it and run out of money I’ll be back making another Ocean’s [Eleven] movie.

13 New Contagion Clips Showcase All-Star Cast, Including Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow

Though similar in premise to 1995's, Outbreak — a team of doctors struggle to stop a deadly virus from growing into a global pandemic — Contagion takes the concept a step further, showing how quickly society can unravel when supplies run out and panic spreads faster than the virus itself. In the baker's dozen of preview clips released, we see that unraveling society includes quite the cast of A-List Stars: Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow, for starters, along with Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Elliott Gould, and Laurence Fishburne.

Two More Frightening TV Spots for Contagion

Director Steven Soderbergh's upcoming Contagion is looking more like a horror movie than a viral thriller. The two TV spots released last week, added with last month's debut trailer, show that Soderbergh has created a movie more on par with 28 Days Later than Outbreak.

Starring Matt Damon as a Midwestern husband whose wife (Gwyneth Paltrow) is the first infected with a highly contagious virus, Contagion's highly-lauded ensemble also includes Academy Award—winner Marion Cotillard and Academy Award nominees Jude Law, Elliott Gould, Laurence Fishburne and Kate Winslet. Winslet told Entertainment Weekly (print edition) that the subject matter certainly scared the actors.

It turned us all into cross-contamination freaks, for sure. There was a a huge bowl of jelly beans on the set. And I love jelly beans. Anything gummy, bring it on. So I went right for the bowl and Steven said,"Do you have any idea how many crew members I have seen put their hand in that bowl in the last few weeks?"

Vote for Your Favorite Gwyneth Paltrow Movies

In Contagion, which hits theaters this September, Gwyneth Paltrow plays the Patient Zero of an avian flu epidemic. In anticipation, Hollywood's Top Ten, the show where movie fans control the countdowns, wants your help selecting Paltrow's Top 10 movies. Vote now for your favorites, then tune in to see if your picks make the cut.

Vote for your Top 10 Gwyneth Paltrow Movies >>

Two TV Spots for Contagion Spread the Message

Unlike some thrillers where a virus threatens humanity, director Steven Soderbergh's upcoming Contagion isn't about stopping the virus before it goes global, it's about how the world responds after the virus goes global. While the movie is reminiscent of apocalyptic horror movies, Contagion's airborne virus strikes at a real chord of fear, considering the recent Bird Flu and SARS scares.

Tempering the movie's extrapolation of real world issues is Contagion's enormous international ensemble, including Jude Law, Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Elliott Gould and Laurence Fishburne. The first trailer for Contagion debuted last month, offering the first (and only) footage for the thriller — that is, until Warner Bros. recently released two new TV spots.

New Movie Posters: Contagion and The Amazing Spider-Man

A new, far more professional looking, poster for Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh's (Traffic) new action-thriller, Contagion, has been released that makes it clear that the viruses depicted on the first poster are going to go global. Written by Scott Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum), Contagion follows an international team of doctors as they try to stop a deadly new virus before it ravages the entire world. Soderbergh has assembled an ensemble cast of superstars for this movie — think of it as the Ocean's Eleven (also directed by Soderbergh) of disaster movies — including Jude Law, Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Elliott Gould and Laurence Fishburne. Contagion opens September 9th.

First Trailer for Steven Soderbergh's Contagion

Director Steven Soderbergh may still be planning to retire, but he's not going quietly.

The first trailer and poster for Soderbergh's thriller Contagion has arrived online, and proves it is a serious and potentially frightening movie. Outbreak, this isn't. Written by Scott Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum, The Informant!), Contagion has a huge ensemble cast, including Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard and Laurence Fishburne. From the looks of the trailer, the movie is going to need a big cast, since the lethal, airborne virus already claims one of the actors by the middle of the trailer.

Steven Soderbergh's Haywire Gets a Release Date; Director Still Plans to Retire

Director Steven Soderbergh (Ocean's Eleven, Erin Brockovich) confirmed his plans to retire in March, but, thankfully, not before his finishes an unending stream of movies.

Soderbergh's action-thriller Haywire, which stars MMA fighter Gina Carano as a special ops agent who seeks revenge on the people who double-crossed her, was shot before the director's deadly virus thriller Contagion, but will open three months after Contagion's Oct. 22 release date. Deadline reports Relativity Media has picked up the U.S. distribution rights for Haywire, setting a release for Jan. 20, 2012. Soderbergh told the site that he thinks the release date order is fitting for the two movies.

I think it might be best for Haywire to follow Contagion, which is the kind of film people like to see me make. It's in the vein of Traffic, an entertaining multi-layered story about something timely right now. Because Gina has never been in a movie before, being able to draft off Contagion will be very good. We knew she could do the right stuff, but she really delivers as a screen presence. She looks comfortable, and then she tears these guys in half.