Some people are afraid of spiders, others fear snakes. Some people even fear beautiful women (it's called caligynephobia). I happen to fear the prospect of global pandemic, with some hyper-virulent little airborne organism decimating the human population, like the Black Plague that ravaged medieval Europe, but on an impossibly large scale. Steven Soderbergh's next film, Contagion, runs with this horrific premise to presumably thrilling effect. The first footage from the film has hit online. The good news: it looks damn good, with a cast that includes Matt Damon, Jude Law, and Kate Winslet. The bad news: this footage debuted as a tease on Entertainment Weekly, meaning it's all chopped up there are obnoxious talking heads all up in it.
Getting beyond the ET baggage, the footage itself is still promising, with Gwyneth Paltrow getting infected and Matt Damon getting emotional. The cast also includes Marion Cotillard, Laurence Fishburne, Bryan Cranston, Sanaa Lathan, Elliott Gould, Demetri Martin, and the always-outstanding John Hawkes. The screenplay is written by Scott Z. Burns, who wrote Soderbergh's The Informant! and is currently developing The Man from U.N.C.L.E. for the director. Burns also contributed to The Bourne Ultimatum and even directed an episode of the Showtime series Californication.
