Sanaa Lathan Among Stars In Thriller ‘Contagion’

Fresh off her triumphant off-Broadway appearance in the acclaimed play, “By The Way, Meet Vera Stark,” Sanaa Lathan heads back to the big screen in “Contagion,” a thriller about a deadly virus that spreads globally.

Starring Laurence Fishburne, Matt Damon and Kate Winslet and directed by Steven Soderbergh, “Contagion” explores what happens when an outbreak occurs, and the fear and panic that results that is almost as deadly as the virus itself. When Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) returns to Minneapolis from a business trip to Hong Kong, she thinks she has jet lag. Two days later, she’s dead and her grieving husband Mitch (Matt Damon) soon finds himself at the epicenter of a worldwide tragedy.

In a small but crucial role, Lathan plays Fishburne’s wife, Aubrey Cheever, who inadvertently causes mass hysteria when she leaks info on the deadly virus via social media.

“Contagion” takes on themes of biological warfare and the possibilities of a major tragedy based on a biological agent, one that could very easily be spread in our most innocuous encounters. The chaos that a virus like that could cause is the center of the film, even more so than the virus itself.

“Contagion” opens in theatres on Friday, Sept. 9.