Steven Soderbergh's Career Retirement Downgraded to a "Sabbatical"
Posted 09.06.11 by Ryan
Matt Damon first revealed the proposed retirement of Steven Soderbergh at the end of last year. Since then, Soderbergh has dismissed his retirement talk, and other times, confirmed them, as he (mostly) did when speaking to The New York Times last week.
I’m interested in exploring another art form while I have the time and ability to do so. I’ll be the first person to say if I can’t be any good at it and run out of money I’ll be back making another Ocean’s [Eleven] movie.
Soderbergh may sound like he's kidding, and he is to an extent. Soderbergh's latest movie, the deadly virus thriller Contagion (starring Damon), is opening this week and making its debut at the Venice Film Festival, where it is playing in competition. It's there that Soderbergh told the BBC that it's not so much a "retirement" as it is a "sabbatical".
It's less dramatic that it sounds — it's just a sabbatical. I feel I need to recalibrate, so I can discover something new.
Of course, Soderbergh could have said that to begin with and saved the constant questions and online speculation. Still, the director has plenty left before he goes on his cinematic "sabbatical" with production on the indie stripper movie Magic Mike (starring Channing Tatum and Alex Pettyfer) starting this month. In February, Soderbergh will shoot his adaptation of The Man From U.N.C.L.E., which recently lost actor George Clooney as the lead, and next summer, Soderbergh with reunite with Damon and Michael Douglas for the biopic Liberace.
Soderbergh also recently did some second unit work on the highly-anticipated adaptation of The Hunger Games and his action/thriller Haywire (starring MMA fighter Gina Carrano) opens in January.
Frankly, with that kind of work load, it does sound like he needs a break.
Next Showing: Contagion opens Friday