Is Director Steven Soderbergh Retiring or Not?
Posted 01.12.11 by Ryan
The rumors about Ocean's Eleven and Erin Brockovich director Steven Soderbergh's pending retirement from movie-making accelerated last month when Matt Damon told The LA Times that Soderbergh's retirement was "getting closer" to fruition.
He wants to paint and he says he's still young enough to have another career. He's kind of exhausted with everything that interested him in terms of form. He's not interested in telling stories. Cinema interested him in terms of form and that's it. He says, "If I see another over-the-shoulder shot, I'm going to blow my brains out."
Damon added that after finishing his next movie, the thriller Contagion, that Soderbergh would direct "Liberace next summer with Michael Douglas, and then he might do one more movie after that with George [Clooney], and then after that he's retiring."
Soderbergh responded to Damon's retirement comments while appearing on Rich Eisen's NFL podcast, joking that Damon "obviously declined to mention that we were both pretty drunk when we had that conversation," adding that "next time I see Matt explain, you know,'on the record' and 'off the record' because he doesn't understand [what they mean]."
Soderbergh went on to say that he was gonna "wind it down" after shooting Liberace "this summer" and then an adaptation the 1960's secret agent TV show Man From U.N.C.L.E., with Clooney in the title role "if I have my way". After joking about starting a rap career once he retires, Soderbergh did say that he sincerely had "an exit strategy".
Look, you can never assume anything in this business, I mean, I've been fired, so, who knows?
Soderbergh's next movie is the action thriller Haywire (formerly Knockout), starring mixed martial arts star Gina Carano, Bill Paxton, Michael Fassbender, and Antonio Banderas and opening April 22, followed by Contagion, which stars half of Hollywood and opens October 21.