Sick Character Posters for "Contagion"
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 11:45PM 
Paolo here, apologizing for the pun. If you'd like, you can leave yours in the comments section unless you think it's too early for that kind of fun.
Because the 'city' poster for Steven Soderbergh's new film Contagion wasn't enough, MovieLine via Yahoo! has uploaded the new character posters for the film, bearing the images of its six major stars. This is much better than the boring poster designs wherein actors faces are separated by boxes. The sepia tone also works well here. But the unfortunate thing about character posters in this case is that it doesn't convey the interpersonal and global reach that should come with films about diseases or plagues. But if we're looking to see how these characters are connected to another, the trailer (previously discussed) conveys that pretty well.
Gwyneth Paltrow (the first victim) has the strongest poster. The other ones aren't as exciting, with Beth's husband (Matt Damon) being scared, Marion Cotillard running or driving away from something within the big city, Jude Law in plastic and Laurence Fishburne and our girl crush Kate Winslet's character Dr. Erin Mears frantically talking on their phones. Someone tweeted to me that only Larry and Kate look good in these posters, the rest of the actors rightfully mangled within the drama of their scenes. [For larger images, click the actor names.]
A little factoid that you all probably know is that Gwynnie and Kate to the left were both in the running for the Oscar winning role of Viola de Lesseps in Shakespeare in Love. Both women frequently show up in Miramax/Weinstein films but they're lending their talents to the Warner Brothers this year.
Why aren't we getting Bryan Cranston and John Hawkes character posters? You want to see them right?
Reader Comments (17)
Character posters are so boring and usually uncreative, and these are no exception. The Gwyneth one is an unappealing image, and not a poster I want to see anywhere.
On that last bit, wasn't it our girl Noni who was apparently THIS close to doing SiL when GwynGwyn basically outright stole it from her? I had no idea Kate was ever in the running at all.
But yes, these are pretty interesting posters. Can't wait to see the intrigue they'll bring when they're presumably plastered all over cinemas this month.
Yeah Mark. This might be slightly off-topic but speaking about Gwyneth's career factoids, can anyone tell me what's the feud beteween she and Winona Ryder? I've always wanted to know what that was about. And it can't be this role stealing cause it's Gwyneth who was badmouthing Noni, like she stabbed her in the back or something. Anyone?
Jae Ly: I stand by my opinion on liking Gwyn's poster. If it's a movie called Contagion, I want to see someone die. This also works for the schadenfreude within Gwyn haters, and my foot in halfway in the door in that club, to be honest.
Mark: I actually don't see Winona in the role. And the weird math in my heard thought that she was too old for the role when in reality she and Gwyn are only a year apart.
Also, Kate turned down a lot of period films (also, Anna and the King) to hide from the spotlight and do weirder and arguably her best work. Her business ethic is the exact opposite now with a movie like this, but I hope her quality remains.
Seisgrados: This seriously happened? I was old enough to remember their personas but not the 'frenemy' angle. But the rumours make sense, but Winona's got her hands full in 1998. It's just as plausible for her to choose to work with Woody Allen and get Girl Interrupted from the ground while passing on to her former BFF a script that's been shifting hands in development for seven years.
@Paolo
The feud is real, i can assure you. What I want to know is the real reason. Nat? Can you bring light to this?
Ps. Regarding Shakespeare in love, it was Julia Roberts who was attached to play Viola's role (with Daniel Day Lewis as costar) but that project never got off the ground.
seisgrados -- i wish i could help but my memory of Winona lore has faded as her career has. For some reason I thought it had something to do with Matt Damon but I'm not sure why that pops up. Wasn't there a moment when besties Matt & Ben were dating former besties Noni & Gwynnie or am I remembering this all wrong?
@Nat
Well I don't know about that, but suddenly it is getting more interesting for sure ;D
Ben Affleck really? Wasn't Brad Pittt back then? Who can keep track: Anyways, always thought the feud was work not love related. Now I have to know. Anyone?
From what I always understood, from various sources, when Winona was still hot shit (circa 97/98) she was offered the part of Viola and seriously considered doing it. It would make sense since she could be very boyish looking (especially within the setting of that film) and the part called for some convincing cross-dressing, as we remember. But when Gwyn was over one time, she essentially stole the SiL script that just happened to be laying around Noni's place, took it up herself to meet the director, got good with him + already had a relationship with producer Harvey Weinstein and they liked her so much she was cast. The rest is history.
I recall in the public comments that Gwyn said 'about' Noni were basically to the effect of Noni was trying her hardest to ruin her and 'take her down'. Doing what exactly, who knows but apparently taking the script, getting the part and winning the Oscar (prematurely) was the revenge and that's what ended their friendship.
http://www.celebtv.com/gwyneth-paltrow-frenemy-winona-ryder-goop
LOL how nearly all the comments in this post are about their admittedly juicy feud.
Wow! And nobody has made a movie about it? It could be All about Eve 2 LOL
The "Don't talk/touch..." tagline is super funny because that's what the extras where probably told in relation to the STARS :p
@James T : *lol*
I don't find these character posters particularly interesting (isn't every big movie doing character posters nowadays? Where do these things go, and who is displaying them?) although I actually somewhat like Matt Damon's, in the midst of action; his hand reaching out and the phrase "don't touch" right above. Nice bit of irony (or whatever you want to call it. Foreshadowing? the gesture implies that he's a dead man.) The Winslet poster - a woman on a cell phone? Zzzzzzz
If I want to see a woman talking on a cell phone all I have to do is step outside my apartment.
I DO like the cities poster, however. I'm not enough of a poster scholar to know if it's ripping off a previous poster, but I think the effect is quite good, implying the global spread of a pandemic.
My favorite posters are Paltrow's and Damon's. They just have that sense of urgency and danger that seems right for a film like this.
With that said, I'm not wholly convinced this was the way to go in the marketing. *We* all may love these actors, but they unfortunately don't put a lot of butts into theaters (unless they're working with Christopher Nolan or playing Jason Bourne) so focusing on them might be too premature. I do love the cities poster and I'm hoping we get one more apocalyptic looking poster.
Is it just me of does Gwyneth look like Tilda and Damon look like Wahlberg?
James T: Except for Kate Winslet. She's humble and one of us, right? I'm rocking back and forth on my couch in fetal position because it's true.
Janice: I'm not sure about Beth's (Paltrow) husband/Matt Damon character being a dead man. In Outbreak, Jimbo (Patrick Dempsey) and his girlfriend are the first one to go, being so close together. Which is the exact opposite, Beth dies in the first ten minutes, but her husband, who theoretically would have the closest proximity to her and would have germ contact with her, gets to do a lot, which can only mean one of two things that I can't tell you until we actually see the whole movie in a month.
But then the script IS out.
Conrad: comparisons with Tilda are compliments.
Paltrow has to be near death or dying to look like Tilda Swinton.