Josie Ho & Chin Han Join Steven Soderbergh's 'Contagion'

Update: Chin Han, best known for his role as Lau in “The Dark Knight” has also joined the film in a currently unspecified role. Though we think its a safe guess he’s Patient Zero.

Hong Kong actress Josie Ho known for roles in Johnny To’s “Exiled,” the horror slasher film “Dream Home,” and “Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li,” has joined the cast of Steven Soderbergh’s virus outbreak thriller, “Contagion” that will be shot in 3D.

An international affair that takes place on several continents (read our detailed, yet spoiler free script review), Ho will appear in the Beijing section of the story as the sister of “Patient Zero” — the first person infected with a new super-Sars-like disease that eventually spreads across several countries (evidently the topic is too close to home and its speculated the film will probably be banned in China).

Written by Scott Z. Burns, “Contagion” is a taut, thrilling and all-too-plausible and frightening screenplay that the writer meticulously researched. After the script leaked earlier this year, we were told Burns would be doing a page 1 rewrite to add more “emotion” to the picture and we’re super curious to read that and assume it’s only gotten better and better (as it stands, the “Traffic”-like sprawl of the picture seems like it could easily garner the screenwriter some plaudits come Oscar season).

The ensemble picture tracks several people across the globe that are dealing with the disease in some form or another, either as victims, doctors and specialists, Center for Disease Control authorities, world health organizers, journalists and more. Taking place in the U.S., Beijing, London, France and several other countries, “Contagion” stars Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Laurence Fishburne, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law and John Hawkes. Since there are many, many characters in the script and several speaking parts in the film, we sort of assume the picture will also be peppered with lots of character actors and international faces too, but so far, not many have been revealed other than the superstar A-list cast. The picture will shoot in 3D on Red’s new 3D Tattoo cameras. Filming is expected to begin in Hong Kong later this month around the end of September. Warner Bros. has already slated the picture for an October, 2011 release date. [THR]