Gwyneth Paltrow Joins Soderbergh's Contagion
Brief news on Contagion, the recently announced Steven Soderberg viral thriller penned by Scott Z. Burns. The film already has a hell of a cast: repeating Soderbergh star Matt Damon plus Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard and Jude Law are all in the lineup. Now Gwyneth Paltrow has joined as well, making this a cast that is sizable enough to span continents as a deadly virus spreads around the globe.
Burns and Soderbergh hatched the story while making The Informant!, and the script was inspired by the swine flu outbreak and discussions about "germs and how the nature of a virus could be used to deal with issues of sovereignty and as a metaphor for the way information and misinformation travel in contemporary society."
The film isn't sold to a distributor yet, but Soderberg & Co. are shopping it around based on a $60m budget. [DHD]