Monday, December 16, 2024

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Steven Soderbergh Taking On Theater Directing Gig For Cate Blanchett’s Sydney Theater Company?

How to disappear completely? When the going gets tough, do the tough do theater? Yesterday we noted an interview with the U.K. press where director Steven Soderbergh seemed defeated and exasperated with the climate in cinema (conservative, scared, lookin’ to make a buck) and threatened, once again, to retire from film early in three, four more years. Many of us speculated that this could be the director venting his frustrations and that he would probably take a year off before quitting out right.

Well, it appears he may have found a different outlet and project which could act as a way to charge creative batteries.

According to a semi-cryptic note on Cate Blanchett’s Sydney Theater Company website with her playwright husband Andrew Upton, Soderbergh is evidently going to direct an untitled theater project. Or at least it appears that way. What’s the project and when? There are zero details, but it makes sense and a medium that Soderbergh is not unfamiliar with. here’s what Cate and Andrew have to say:

Andrew: Steven Soderbergh?
Cate: He made Sex, Lies, and Videotape when he was about seven. He made the Ocean’s Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen capers. He was nominated for an Academy Award for two films in the same year: Traffic and Erin Brockovich. We met him when I made The Good German.
Andrew: Just because you can make a good film doesn’t necessarily mean you can direct a play, does it?
Cate: Not necessarily, but trust me, this guy could direct the phonebook.
Andrew: The phonebook? Is that the secret project?

Let’s not forget Soderbergh directed Blanchett in, “The Good German,” so she likely understands and admires his skills. A user notes that the dates of this play look like they’re scheduled for December 2009, but it’s very possible, he planned this all before the “Moneyball” crap went down.

During his “Schizopolis” days — a period some might call his lost in the creative wilderness era, but was actually more of a rejection of the Hollywood system and a deep ventured into guerrilla filmmaking — Soderbergh was seemingly trying to deconstruct his process and career (again, evidence is simply the highly neurotic and experimental “Schizopolis”) and tackled many projects seemingly without Hollywood appeal (see “Gray’s Anatomy” his Spalding Gray doc).

One of those projects he took on during that period — documented in his 1999 book “Getting Away With It,” — was directing the Jonathan Reynold‘s comedic play “Geniuses” about a writer called in to salvage a chaotic blockbuster being filmed in a tropical foreign country (sounds like a little “Tropic Thunder”). According to Soderbergh it was a “thinly veiled account of Reynolds experiences on ‘Apocalypse Now‘ .” It appears that it wasn’t terribly well-received nor was it super notable in the press, but it did appear to be part of his whole cleansing era, which did lead to his Hollywood renaissance in “Out Of Sight.”

So, with Soderbergh already having expressed skepticism with the timid, worried and unadventurous film atmosphere (he said he worries the films he wants to make will only appeal to himself) and general frustration (see the “Moneyball” debacle), is he simply going to take another sidestepping detour until said climate changes? Its certainly within the realm of possibility and seems to match his m.o., but dear god, can you please make “Cleo” and “Liberace,” before you disappear? Not that either of those projects will be easy to make nowadays…. It’s conceivable we might be waiting a while. [via Hollywood Elsewhere]

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12 COMMENTS

  1. the story in the Guardian has already been retracted. The quotes were out of context and the article had a lot of factual errors (including saying Che made 1.7 million worldwide..when it's made over 50 million)

    Soderbergh has been set to direct this play for over a year.

  2. Thanks. Yeah, i tried to avoid that. It gets sensationalist. I'm sure we've done a bad headline in our day too. I guess it depends on how well you know a project.

    And again, i see this "Story has been retracted" multiple places in comments sections and i buy it, he said the same things during the Che press cycle so they're probably old quotes, but i still don't see any change on the old story.

    We already wrote about the same thing when he told GQ he wanted to retire in a few years as well, but no one noticed because Moneyball wasn't such a big deal.

    Obviously those quotes said before the Moneyball situation are definitely out of context.

    We'll see if something turns up online.

  3. Not sure if you noted this… the Aussie theatre company's website page for this "Untitled Project" does list Soderbergh's name as director in the left-hand column, almost as if it's a done deal. The page even lists playdates in December for the project.

  4. Even if you guys did a sensationalist headline like that, it would at least have a question mark. These headlines are pulling in readers by acting like he said "I am definitely quitting" instead of just said "I can see myself quitting."

  5. I'm from Baton Rouge where Soderbergh shot Schizopolis, Gray's Anatomy and directed the Geniuses play in the mid '90s. I wrote a cover story on Soderbergh's Louisiana routes the 20th Anniversary of sex, lies and videotape (also shot in Baton rouge) after interviewing him last year and here are the links: http://225batonrouge.com/news/2009/jan/26/see-you-l/

    and

    http://225batonrouge.com/news/2009/jan/26/sex-lies-and-legacy/

    Soderbergh may take a year or two off soon, but he'll be back. In some way shape or form. No way he'll retire for good. He loves making movies too much.

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