ORIGINAL MOVIE �FATAL CONTACT: BIRD FLU IN AMERICA� TO AIR TUESDAY, MAY 9 ON ABC

Joely Richardson, Stacy Keach, Ann Cusack, Justina Machado, Scott Cohen and David Ramsey Star

Distinguished Scholar at Tulane and Author of a NY Times Bestseller Served as Consultant

There are times that test humanity and challenge the soul of a community or a nation. News images and headlines tell stories of rising waters, quaking ground and tragic acts by man himself. But the real story, the human story, is found in the lives changed forever, in the strength of the survivors, and the resilient hope that gives them the courage to recover.

On TUESDAY, MAY 9 (8:00-10:00 p.m., ET), ABC will bring such a story to television in a two-hour original movie. �Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America� follows an outbreak of an Avian Flu from its origins in a Hong Kong market through its mutation into a virus transmittable from human to human around the world. The meticulously researched film stars Joely Richardson (�Nip/Tuck�), Stacy Keach (�Prison Break,� �Blackbeard�), Ann Cusack (�Grey�s Anatomy,� �Ghost Whisperer�), Justina Machado (�Six Feet Under�), Scott Cohen (�Street Time,� �Law & Order: Trial by Jury�) and David Ramsey (�All of Us�).

John M. Barry, Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Tulane University and writer of the New York Times bestseller, �The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History,� served as a consultant on the project. Barry�s book, which includes a new afterword on today�s Avian Flu, focuses on the 1918 Spanish Flu which killed between 50-100 million people.

[Editors Note: The film deals with the current threat of the Avian Flu virus (H5N1). Scientists continue to debate the degree to which the virus can mutate and be easily passed among human beings.]

The movie opens with an American businessman flying to Hong Kong to meet with his Asian manufacturers. After 11 meetings in three countries in six days, he starts his return to Virginia. But before he returns home, the Chinese government has informed the World Health Organization that a new strain of the Avian Flu virus was discovered in a local marketplace. Over 1.2 million infected birds were killed in an attempt to eradicate this strain. Dr. Iris Varnack (Richardson) of the Epidemic Intelligence Service receives an emergency summons to China, where she discovers these efforts may have come too late. Despite the early warning, the H5N1 virus has mutated into a version that can spread from human to human -- shown in eye-opening detail whenever the microbes start to permeate the atmosphere � across races, nationalities, genders and ages.

The story is seen through the eyes of other key characters, including Collin Reed (Keach), Secretary of Health and Human Services, who is the primary go-between for Dr. Varnack with the state and local leaders back in America; Denise Connolly (Cusack), wife of the American businessman, as she deals with his illness and then helps to support other infected people; Governor Mike Newsome (Cohen) of Virginia, who, upon learning of this deadly virus, puts his city in quarantine and then breaks down the state into communities that can nurture each other; Alma Ansen (Machado), a hospital nurse in New York City who suddenly finds herself in the midst of escalating chaos working at a new and hastily constructed flu facility; and Curtis Ansen (Ramsey), Alma�s husband in the National Guard who was brought back to New York.

�Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America� is executive-produced by Diana Kerew (�Surrender Dorothy�) and Judith Verno (�The Hunt for the BTK Killer�) for Sony Pictures Television. The movie was written by Ron McGee (�Atomic Twister�) and directed by Richard Pearce (Academy Award winner for �Hearts and Minds,� Peabody Award winner for �Nothing Sacred�).