There are two sides to the Steven Soderbergh coin. On one side is an indie director interested in crafting small, quiet but personal releases that may or may not be seen by a mainstream audience (see Bubble or his two part Che, if you haven’t already). Then there’s the Soderbergh who’s remarkably comfortable guiding gobs of A-listers through intricate thrillers like the Oceans trilogy, Traffic or the wildly underrated The Informant!

Contagion, his latest, appears to be an example of the latter. It has more celebrities that both Cannonball Run films combined. The challenge appears to be finding enough face time for every actor taking part in his rampant-virus drama. Case in point: Not everyone could be featured on the movie’s new poster, featured today on Yahoo!. Even with Oscar winners Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Laurence Fishburne and Gwyneth Paltrow boxed on the one-sheet, the poster overlooks Bryan Cranston, John Hawkes, Elliott Gould, Sanaa Lathan and comedian Demitri Martin, to name just a few. Here’s the poster, which is soaked in a hazardous hew of yellow:



I, for one, love when Soderbergh dabbles in larger-budget storytelling, because he applies his indie instincts for sharp scripts and nuanced performances while painting with a bigger brush. Contagion looks like it could scare you away from bathroom door handles, handshakes and hugs. Written by Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum, The Informant!), Contagion opens nationwide on Sept. 9th.