While the wait for Steven Soderbergh’s next film “Haywire” might be a bit longer than we expected due to a late stage distributor change, the director is never one to sit twiddling his thumbs. And with his next film, the globe-trotting virus thriller “Contagion” gearing up to shoot very soon, more names have joined the already huge and star-studded cast.
According to our sources, Demetri Martin, Jennifer Ehle, Bryan Cranston and Elliott Gould have joined the cast for the film, which already boasts Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Laurence Fishburne, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, John Hawkes, Chin Han and Josie Ho. Phew. As you might recall, Martin was set to star in Soderbergh’s “Moneyball” before it fell apart last year, while Gould has worked with the director in the ‘Oceans’ films as well as in the short-lived HBO series “K Street.” For Ehle and Cranston it will be their first time working with the helmer.
An international affair that takes place on several continents (read our detailed, yet spoiler-free script review), and written by Scott Z. Burns, “Contagion” is a taut, thrilling and all-too-plausible and frightening screenplay that is a “Traffic”-like sprawling film about the ramifications of the spread of a global virus. We hear Burns continues to fine-tune the already strong draft we read earlier in the year. No word yet on what roles the new cast members will be playing.
However, while it was previously announced that the film would be shot in 3D, we’ve learned that some technical holdups have caused Soderbergh to make a last minute change. Apparently the new RED Tattoo camera, which the director would’ve been the first to use, has had a few last-minute glitches and won’t be ready in time for the production. Instead, Soderbergh will be reverting back to the regular RED cameras he owns and used on “Che,” “The Informant,” “The Girlfriend Experience,” and “Haywire,” and that David Fincher apparently borrowed to shoot “The Social Network.”
Shooting begins on the film this month in Hong Kong and Chicago (and if you’re in the Chicago area, extras are being sought). “Contagion” will hit theaters on October 21, 2011.