‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’ To Shoot In February 2012, ‘Liberace’ To Follow In The Summer
First off, Steven Soderbergh does still plan to step away from directing with more or less the same timeline, however he’s a workhorse and seeing another interesting project cross his desk — luckily for us — he’s decided to squeeze in one more picture onto his schedule.
The director plans to team with Channing Tatum, who stars in Soderbergh’s forthcoming “Haywire,” on the actor’s passion project “Magic Mike.” The film is one Tatum has been talking about making for a while now, as it’s an autobiographical tale about his young days as a stripper. Way back in early 2010, Tatum talked about the project and at the time had another helmer in mind saying, “I’ve already got the director picked out. I’d like Nicolas Refn, who did the movie ‘Bronson,’ to do it because he’s insane for it. It needs to be a crazy film and I think it’s also possible to do a cute, romantic movie.” Obviously, in the time that has since passed, Tatum hooked up with Soderbergh and the two seem to have hit it off smashingly.
The story will find Tatum playing the titular character, who teaches a younger dancer how to hustle his wares on stage and off, and it’s inspired by the actor’s own experiences. “This was a wild and pivotal time in my life and I couldn’t be more thrilled to go down the rabbit hole with Steven,” Tatum said in a statement obtained by Deadline.
“When Channing talked to me about this, I thought it was one of the best ideas I’d ever heard for a movie,” Soderbergh said in a statement. “I said I wanted in immediately. It’s sexy, funny and shocking. We’re using ‘Saturday Night Fever‘ as our model, so hopefully we’re on the right track.”
We’ve been told that the film will be a low budget affair, not quite as lean as the production of “The Girlfriend Exprience,” but likely coming in with a $6-7 million pricetag. The script will be penned by Reid Carolin who will also produce alongside Nick Wechsler, Gregory Jacobs and Tatum. “Magic Mike” will be taken to buyers next month at Cannes for foreign pre-sales where as part of the presentation a teaser cut by Soderbergh will be shown featuring Tatum. And lensing on this will begin very soon with a September/October shoot in the works.
So how does Soderbergh’s calender look from here? Let’s break it down. “Haywire” will hit theaters in August; “Magic Mike” will gear up to shoot in September/October; “Contagion” then arrives on October 21st. And then heading into the new year, “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” is aiming to roll in February and it will be followed by “Liberace,” still planned as Soderbergh’s final film, which will shoot in the summer.
As usual, a tremendously busy schedule for Soderbergh, but “Magic Mike” sounds like yet another fascinating turn from the director and we’ll gladly take one more from the helmer before he steps away from the camera.
I find the \”I\’m gonna take my toys and go home\” attitude Soderbergh keeps mouthing childish in the extreme.
Do I think he is going to retire soon? No. Take a break maybe, but if an interesting project comes along, I\’m sure the whole retirement idea will be out the window (as it appears to be already) in a flash.
Frankly I also doubt that the new MFU movie, if it ever shoots, will be shooting in February. If that was the case it is more than probable it would already be in pre-production and there would be more official buzz. The only buzz I\’ve heard has been of that \”maybe\” and \”could be\” variety. And certainly Warners\’ itself hasn\’t said that such a movie is actually in the hopper to shoot next year.
Hopefully, if the MFU movie does shoot at some point it won\’t be with old man Clooney as Solo. He\’s just too old for the part; no getting around that truth.
Flamenco Tanka….
Shirtless Matt-adore,
Whirl your bike helmet-for-bull,
Twirl your red silk shirt,
Pool-side by moonlight, ballet,
Lee key-dance Malaguena !
Steven S – I would buy that if Soderbergh had come out with it himself (initially) and it hadn\’t been announced in an off-handed remark by Matt Damon in an interview. I honestly don\’t see why Soderbergh would just now in his career feel the need to drum up publicity, considering he\’s never been a \”celebrity director\” of the Quentin Tarantino ilk. Most moviegoers probably have no idea who he is and could care less if he\’s retiring or not. The only people who care are the people who are already his fans, so I\’m not sure what good it would do with regards to box office performance.
love it. I hope he never retires. maybe if people keep tossing interesting projects at him, he won\’t be able to say no.
The \”retirement\” thing is just a way to get publicity. Who cares what image of this guy film nerds want to create, he\’s still your typical egotistical hollywood director.
If he says he\’s retiring, it gets press for him and his movies. Movies like \”bubble\” or \”girlfriend experience\” or even bigger ones like \”the informant!\” came and went pretty fast without much fanfare, this is just a tactic to get people talking about these movies and building pre-release hype as \”the last steven soderberg movies\” in hopes it improves performance.
Yeah, I know, you\’re right. I think it\’s some kind of psychological thing where regular citizens feel like they know a celebrity, and the only time said celebrity really talks to the citizen is when they say, \”Hey, I\’m going to retire.\” So it feels like, \”Oh, hey, this celebrity is telling me something.\” And then when they say, \”I\’m still retiring, but I\’m going to do something else first\” it feels not like a lie, but more like, \”I don\’t really give a shit about what I said, it\’s my life and I don\’t owe you guys anything.\”
Which is true, it is his life, Soderbergh doesn\’t owe us anything. I\’ll talk to my shrink about it.
Also, I met him once after a Q&A and he\’s a really nice person.
Something that came together relatively recently. He was likely sincere at the time. \” don’t need homeboy playing games with the public’s collective heart.\” a bit dramatic, no?
What kind of dirt does Channing Tatum have on the top tier of Hollywood? He is completely devoid of any personality whatsoever (and not even that attractive anymore) yet he\’s one of the busiest working actors right now.
It does not compute.
Fuck yes. Keep it going, Soderbergh!
Saw a screening of Haywire earlier this week and it was, unfortunately, really bad.