Contagion Trailer: Gwyneth Paltrow vs. Bird Flu
Put off by Gwyneth Paltrow’s trademark entitled breeziness? Her casually smug musings about the rigors of raising her rockstar children in an English mansion? Her sudden singing career? Her GOOP? Has Steven Soderbergh got a movie for you!
Contagion is an upcoming thriller about the global Outbreak, ahem, outbreak of a lethal virus transmitted through a single touch. It has an impressively Soderbergh-ian cast of if not thousands than at least dozens of notable names (including Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, John Hawkes, Elliott Gould, Bryan Cranston, Laurence Fishburne. Laurence Fishburne’s moustache) and features terrifying images of a sick, panicky world gone mad: abandoned airports, missing posters, a French doctor with responsibility. But judging by the film’s trailer, the marketing for the movie will subsume all of that in service of a hook with greater international appeal: Gwyneth Paltrow dies! And, from what it looks like, quite horribly too!
It’s a bold play — not only to give away a film’s inciting incident in the trailer but also to bank an entire campaign on the universal dislike for a single person. But if there’s one actress who can unite an entire planet of haters — from those who can’t abide seeing her rap to those who can’t stand seeing her traipse around Spain refusing to eat delicious ham — it’s Gwynnie. And besides, the Contagion trailer — which, we should add, really does look great! — doesn’t give away the entire plot. For example, our most pressing, disturbing question after viewing it was left boldly unanswered. That question? “What’s up with Matt Damon’s face?”
Filed Under: Gwyneth Paltrow, Movies, Scouting Report, Steven Soderbergh, Trailers
More from Andy Greenwald
-
The State of Scary TV: ‘The Returned’ and ‘Ash vs Evil Dead’ Join ‘The Walking Dead’ in Offering High-Quality Horror
-
‘The Andy Greenwald Podcast’: Aya Cash of ‘You’re the Worst’
-
‘The Andy Greenwald Podcast’: ‘Fargo’ Showrunner Noah Hawley
-
I Loathe the ’80s: ‘Wicked City’ Is an Empty Journey Into the Dark Heart of the Sunset Strip
-
Capes & Crossovers: How Franchises Invaded Television
More Gwyneth Paltrow
-
The Se7enn Diagrams: Celebrating Your Favorite Serial Killer Movie in Graphical Form
-
The Week in Gossip: All the Celebrity Marriages, Breakups, and Reproductions You Missed Over the Holidays
-
Give Reese a Chance: The Ongoing Comeback of an American Bitter-Sweetheart
-
Do We Need Another iTunes Killer? If It’s Called GhostTunes, and It’s From Garth Brooks, Sure
-
Is the Rumored Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Martin Romance Great or Terrible for Jennifer Lawrence?
More Hollywood Prospectus
-
Brand Echh: Sandra Bullock and Billy Bob Thornton Can’t Save the Lame ‘Our Brand Is Crisis’
-
50 Scenes That Do Not Appear in the Fox ‘X-Files’ Revival
-
In Praise of Beach Slang, 2015’s Best, Most Sincere Rock Band
-
Who Was Missing From Taylor Swift’s Miami Squad?
-
Happy ‘Halloween’: The Best Horror-Movie Monsters