Contagion
Short description
A lethal virus spreads around the world, passed along through ordinary contact between people, and kills its victims within days. As the outbreak grows, public health officials at the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention work to understand the pathogen and find a way to stop it, while the World Health Organization sends a doctor to trace where the illness first appeared. At the same time, a man in Minneapolis loses his wife to the disease and tries to keep his daughter safe, and a blogger spreads his own claims about the epidemic, feeding public fear. Panic and competition over a vaccine strain society as the death toll rises.
Steven Soderbergh directed the film, his nineteenth in chronological order, following The Girlfriend Experience and preceding Haywire, from a screenplay by Scott Z. Burns. The large cast includes Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Kate Winslet and Jennifer Ehle, among 146 credited performers and 218 credited crew members. It was produced by Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher and Gregory Jacobs for Warner Bros. Pictures, Regency Enterprises, Participant and Imagenation Abu Dhabi FZ.
Released in September 2011, the film cost about 60 million dollars and took in roughly 138 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 6.8 out of 10 from around 330,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.7 out of 10 from a much smaller base of about 6,700 votes. A critics' rating of 7.1 out of 10 across 280 reviews places it slightly above both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Dr. Ian Lipkin, a film consultant and professor of epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, stated that the virus described in the film is reminiscent of the Nipah virus, which was first identified in Malaysia in the late 1990s during an outbreak among pig farmers.
- All scenes featuring Kate Winslet were filmed in 10 days.
- Lauren Vasquez works at the desk of Benny Evangelista, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. Evangelista is known for the perpetual mess on his desk, and the filmmakers decided to capture it as is.
- The role of Beth Emhoff was originally intended for Jennifer Connelly.
- This is the first film by Steven Soderbergh released in IMAX format.
- Jon Neal, whom Beth, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, speaks to on the phone from the airport, is voiced by Steven Soderbergh.
- Consultant Ian Lipkin insisted on reshooting the scene where Dr. Ellie Hextall gives herself an experimental vaccination. Initially, actress Jennifer Ehle pretended to inject herself through her clothing.
- As a promotional stunt, the Canadian branch of the film company 'Warner Bros. Pictures' ordered two huge petri dishes and installed them in a shopping mall window in Toronto. Over several days, bacteria and fungi grew in them, forming the film's title and biohazard symbols.
- Following the film "The Informant!" (2009), Steven Soderbergh and Scott Burns intended to make a biographical film about the controversial German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, but Soderbergh abandoned the idea, realizing how limited his audience would be. After that, Soderbergh and Burns decided to create a drama about the challenges facing the global healthcare system.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
