“Tell them I’m coming… Again?” Normally, when you hear a story as wild as this you simply brush it off.
Steven Soderbergh making a sequel to a seemingly 0pen-and-shut story like “The Limey,” the terrific 1999 revenge noir starring Terence Stamp? [the temporal editing shifts make this fantastic movie]
But apparently it’s not bullshit. Soderbergh’s wife Jules Asner, a former E! host, was on the the Adam Carolla podcast last week and the two of them started discussing Soderbergh’s oeuvre and the film’s of his she like best. Both of them enthusiastically agreed that they loved, “The Limey,” and the Asner, dropped this little tidbit. “He wants to do a sequel to The Limey and Terence wants to do it.” We found the quote at Digital Spy and then confirmed it by listening to the Carolla podcast (it’s around the 21:20 mark). What Digitial Spy doesn’t transcribe is the second part of what she says which is cut off by the loudmouth Carolla who doesn’t even bother asking a follow-up question, he loves the sound of his voice so much. “…Terence wants to do it. Terence and Michael Caine.”
Soderbergh of course once described “The Limey” as “Alain Resnais making ‘Get Carter,’ ” and ‘Carter’ of course is a classic British 1971 gangster film starring Michael Caine. It’s all starting to make sense. But both these chaps are starting to get up there, especially Caine (see the elderly butler roles of late). It might be difficult to make him seem like a ruthless adversary to Stamp’s Wilson character. If they’re gonna attempt a sequel, they better get on it (in what’s sure to make Internet noise, /film says its Michael Keaton instead of Caine, but listen closely, they’ve misheard).
So, is this something that’s actively being worked on? Perhaps the new next project before “Cleo” and or “Liberace” now that the director is off “Moneyball”? Doesn’t really sound like it. Asner and Carolla do discuss “Liberace” briefly, and she still mentions Matt Damon and Michael Douglas as the leads of that project. So “Limey 2,” (or whatever it would be called, presumably not that) a pie-in-the-sky, “wouldn’t-that-be-fun?” project or something that will eventually happen? Hard to say, hopefully someone will ask the director about it soon to get more clarity.
MAKE THIS HAPPEN.
I can't recall exactly, but I think this may have been mentioned in the commentary (or else I read about it in an interview). At the end of the film, Stamp's character makes a reference to going after the guys who betrayed him and got him sent to jail for the heist job that got him sent to prison (where he was when his daughter was killed.)
In a lot of ways I still consider The Limey to be Soderbergh's best film. I really hope this gets made.
I heard she said Terrence Stamp and Michael Keaton.
Listen again.
And just cause that's what /film heard doesn't make it so. I think we've already outlined why Caine makes a thousand times more sense than Keaton does and that British writer of all ppl should have figured that out too.
Since when did Hollywood take a closed story and lengthen the character arc by adding a similar foil character with related wit and heritage…um, forever, recentl, always?
Can we just have new stories instead of recycled bits of past goodness?
Re: John's comment. Yes, that's true in the film, however there's really no need to extend this storyline. It was such a good close.
It's Caine not Keaton…the two were roommates during the 60's. I even believe they may have starred in a couple of films together back then…?
so Soderbergh could use the same technique that he did in 'The Limey'….cutting back to a film/cutting back in time…to the 60's.
@maria. Exactly.
I'm still voting for Keaton.
You're hoping for Michael Keaton or you're ears are voting for him. It's not him.
I literally rewatched it last weekend and everytime I see it, it blows my socks off! Not only does the deft non-linear editing bring a smile to my face, but, the referencing of the Ken Loach film as flashbacks=cinephile's post-modern boner!
It's terrible what happened to Moneyball, but, me hopes this project is on the fast track
To believe that she said "Michael Keaton" you'd have to assume Ms. Asner all of the sudden horribly slurred the name "Keaton" into "Caine." I don't know what else to say.
There's also a lot of POINT BLANK in LIMEY. Soderbergh actually does the commentary with John Boorman on the PB DVD.
i love the limey and i love the crazy po-mo temporal editing, but i don't want a sequel from Soderbergh. Do Liberace and or Cleo, but i would understand if he feels like he needs a commercial project before he jumps into those two.
@Shingle. Yeah, i love that film and commentary. Must-own. (All of soderbergh's commentaries are great and i have a few, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Graduate, etc.)
i think there's one for Catch 22? but not sure. He def does one for Battle Of Algiers, but i bought that for a buddies x-mas gift instead of picking it up for myself.
Totally agree…his commentaries set the standard, really. He's the only filmmaker who really knows how to do it, by bringing in another filmmaker, be they related to the film or not. I've gotten to the point where I buy/rent movies of his just to hear the commentary.
Apparently he does commentary on The Third Man and Clean Shaven DVDs (both Criterion) as well.
I would like to say "don't screw up The Limey" but fuck…Caine and Stamp together, going to get revenge? How can I turn that down?
Ah yes, the Third Man. I have that too. Not sure about Clean shaven. The thing about his commentaries though is that it's a conversation between two ppl which is sometimes better than one person by themselves (except Wes Anderson commentaries with other ppl that generally suck; they go off on tangents that aren't that interesting, it's mutual admiration society…)
Actually Soderbergh doesn't do a commentary on the ALGIERS Criterion DVD set. He's on a featurette entitled, "Five Directors" which also includes Spike Lee, Mira Nair, Julian Schnabel, and Oliver Stone
1) I don't understand how people would think this was a commercial move. No one saw the original "The Limey." This is akin to Abbas Kiarostami's "Taste Of Cherry II: The Reckoning."
2) Michael Keaton needs it more.
3) I would think we've gotten passed the antiquated "no sequels ever" rule, since sequels, some great, have been made since the beginning of time, and out of all the filmmakers to revisit their work, few are more interesting than Soderbergh.
4) The DVD commentary for KEANE, a movie Soderbergh produced, is pretty good. Even better is the "producer's cut" version of the film on the same DVD that showcases how Soderbergh would have edited the film differently. The contrast between the two cuts is a film class in itself. Great movie, btw.