Trivia
The Russian title of the film ("Zarazhenie") contains nine letters, like the English one, and the poster of the film also mentions nine cities' names with one letter highlighted and the highlighted letters form the name of the film. They are, from top to bottom: kaZan, atlAnta, san fRancisco, chicAgo, pariZH (Paris), gEneva, loNdon, tokIo (Tokyo), pErm - Z-A-R-A-ZH-E-N-I-E. Kazan and Perm are Russian cities.
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Consultant Dr. Ian Lipkin - professor of epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health - said the virus in the film is one he created based on some traits of the Nipah virus from Malaysia in the late 1990s which spread from pigs to farmers.
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The main cast contains an extraordinarily high number of actors who have been nominated for or who have won Academy Awards: Marion Cotillard (won Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for La Vie en Rose); Matt Damon (co-won Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for Good Will Hunting); Laurence Fishburne (nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role for What's Love Got to Do with It); Elliott Gould (nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice); John Hawkes (nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for Winter's Bone); Jude Law (nominated twice); Gwyneth Paltrow (won Best Actress in a Leading Role for Shakespeare in Love); Kate Winslet (won Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for The Reader).
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The actual desk of Benny Evangelista, reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, appears in the film as Lorraine Vasquez's desk. Evangelista's desk is notoriously messy, and was left as it was by the crew.
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To promote this film, Warner Bros. Pictures Canada built two giant Petri dishes treated with bacteria and fungi and set them in a Toronto storefront window. Over several days, the bacteria and fungi specimens grew to spell out the name of the film and form biohazard symbols.
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This is the first film that Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon and Jude Law have worked together in since The Talented Mr. Ripley. However, Law doesn't have any scenes with either, and Damon and Paltrow barely share the screen together for a minute.
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Steven Soderbergh and Scott Z. Burns were planning to follow up The Informant! with a biopic about controversial German director Leni Riefenstahl, but Soderbergh decided to abandon that project because it would have a very limited potential audience. The two men then came up with an idea for a suspense and drama look at a worldwide medical crisis, which they fine-tuned into this film.
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Director Cameo
Steven Soderbergh:
as the voice of Jon Neal in the first scene. Beth (Gwyneth Paltrow) talks to him on her cellphone while waiting to board the plane at the airport.
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Spoilers
A scene where Dr. Ally Hextall (Jennifer Ehle) injects herself with the vaccine was re-shot at the suggestion of consultant Dr. Ian Lipkin, because her scientist character was inappropriately shown injecting the needle through clothing.
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