It takes a lot of courage and resolve for film directors to withstand the pressure from studio bosses and marketeers to cast well-known actors. But Gavin O'Connor was adamant about casting Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy over more familiar movie stars in his new film WARRIOR.

Joel says O'Connor stuck his neck out for he and Hardy, and provided the two men with two of the most compelling and detailed characters of their careers.

Usually in this kind of film, drama takes a back seat to the action and fighting, but here the filmmakers worked hard both in and out of the ring. Don't be put off by the mixed martial arts theme, it's only the setting for a blistering family drama.

Listen to the Aussie and the Pom tell hilarious anecdotes about the grueling training regimen and the injuries they sustained. Then watch O'Connor explain his determination to cast someone whose face looked "like he'd been in a few bar brawls".

Both actors plus Nick Nolte are guaranteed to feature in the upcoming awards consideration, and you owe it to yourself to go and see several of the more devastating performances you'll see this, or any year.

It has become a cultural obsession inspired by viral disease and infectious dangers: SARS, West Nile virus, Swine Flu, Bird Flu, E. coli, AIDS, bio-terrorism.

In a global world we are more exposed to the threat of a viral spread and it feeds our natural anxiety, an anxiety that is easily exploited in Steven Soderbergh's latest film CONTAGION.

Listen to the directed claim that his trouble-making is not unreasonable, and while he wanted the film to be unsettling, that it be somewhat reassuring to people with the knowledge that scientists have extended mechanisms in place to combat the spread of a virus.

Hear Laurence Fishburne describe how the technical advisers on the film would give him daily updates on the tracking and containment of each new strain, and watch Matt Damon explain how his character is somehow immune to this virus, though his wife in the film, (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) was not so lucky, and how he's willing to do anything to protect their daughter.