Workaholic
Steven Soderbergh is still reportedly keeping his promise of retiring in a few years to find himself or something (he'll get bored and come back sooner or later) but the good news is, he's managed to sneak in another project to shoot in the mean time and we have actor
Channing Tatum to thank. Soderbergh has just worked with Tatum on his low-budget actioner
Haywire when the actor told him about his passion project
Magic Mike, a semi-autobiographical tale about his young adult days as a stripper that would see him play the title character who teaches a younger dancer the ropes. It has been described as both a movie about male bonding and also as 'a cute, romantic movie'. Soderbergh liked the idea and working with Tatum so much he has agreed to bring it to the big screen, and according to
The Playlist in his typical fashion on a low budget (less than $10 million) and super quickly too (it will film in September/October). Soderbergh, who remember has made biopics of Che Guevara and Erin Brockovich, remade Ocean's Thirteen and Solaris, and helmed Traffic, astonishingly says in a statement
Deadline have re-printed;
When Channing talked to me about this, I thought it was one of the best ideas Id ever heard for a movie... I said I wanted in immediately. Its sexy, funny and shocking. Were using Saturday Night Fever as our model, so hopefully were on the right track.
In the same statement Tatum says;
This was a wild and pivotal time in my life and I couldnt be more thrilled to go down the rabbit hole with Steven,
Reid Carolin, associate producer on Stop-Loss is now writing the screenplay and Magic Mike will be on sale to buyers in Cannes next month, where a presentation teaser featuring Tatum and shot by Soderbergh will play. I wonder if it will be reminiscent of this real video of Tatum stripping as a 19 year old... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYoNK0oLUuI Regarding Soderbergh then, he was probably annoyed he had a three month gap between projects later this year and was worried about being bored instead of taking a vacation!
Haywire is due to hit theatres in August, which he will follow up with shooting Magic Mike the following month, then
Contagion (which I think is going to be something special) opens October 21st, before directing
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. with George Clooney and perhaps Leonardo DiCaprio in February 2012, and then Michael Douglas as
Liberace in an ambitious biopic, Soderbergh's final film, in the summer. How can somebody who has the energy to work so hard and so throughouly and no matter what he tells us, has so many unique stories to tell every year, be ready to retire in 2013? I just don't see it as a possibility. However, at least we will be getting five more movies out of him before then! For anyone keeping count, that's one short of the amount of movies Sergio Leone directed in his life time.