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Director Steven Soderbergh (Ocean's Eleven, Erin Brockovich) confirmed his plans to retire in March, but, thankfully, not before his finishes an unending stream of movies.
Soderbergh's action-thriller Haywire, which stars MMA fighter Gina Carano as a special ops agent who seeks revenge on the people who double-crossed her, was shot before the director's deadly virus thriller Contagion, but will open three months after Contagion's Oct. 22 release date. Deadline reports Relativity Media has picked up the U.S. distribution rights for Haywire, setting a release for Jan. 20, 2012. Soderbergh told the site that he thinks the release date order is fitting for the two movies.
I think it might be best for Haywire to follow Contagion, which is the kind of film people like to see me make. It's in the vein of Traffic, an entertaining multi-layered story about something timely right now. Because Gina has never been in a movie before, being able to draft off Contagion will be very good. We knew she could do the right stuff, but she really delivers as a screen presence. She looks comfortable, and then she tears these guys in half.
soderbergh's plan for retirement >> Posted 06.17.11 by Ryan -
In December of last year, Matt Damon revealed his Ocean's Eleven director Steven Soderbergh was planning to retire, a notion that Soderbergh later revealed on Rich Eisen's NFL podcast was discussed in a "off the record conversation" between the actor and director when the two were "pretty drunk." Soderbergh did admit to having an "exit strategy," however.
Months later, Soderbergh soberly told Entertainment Weekly that he was indeed planning to retire.
You know when you see one of those athletes hang on two seasons too long? It’s kind of sad, because then your last image of them isn’t when they were great...I mean, why not go out with Abbey Road?
what are Soderbergh's reasons? >> Posted 03.14.11 by Ryan -
Two different sites managed to nab "spy pics" from the San Francisco set of director Steven Soderbergh's new ensemble action-thriller, Contagion. While LaughingSquid posted several pictures of debris-strewn streets and propaganda posters used in the movie, JustJared actually managed to capture several shots of actor Jude Law on the set. Whether he's getting into character or just uncomfortable in the goofy-looking containment suit he's wearing, Law does not look very happy in most of the photos.
Contagion was written by Scott Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum, The Informant!) and follows an international team of doctors contracted by the CDC to try to contain a global outbreak of a deadly virus. Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Laurence Fishburne also star. The movie opens October 21st.
Posted 02.15.11 by BrentJS -
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."
how did soderbergh respond? >> Posted 01.12.11 by Ryan -
The cast of director Steven Soderbergh's ridiculously huge ensemble for his action-thriller Contagion is getting even bigger. The Playlist reports that Demetri Martin (Taking Woodstock), Jennifer Ehle (The King's Speech), Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), and Elliott Gould have joined a cast which already includes Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Laurence Fishburne.
Written by Bourne Ultimatum screenwriter Scott Z. Burns, Contagion follows the spread of a global virus and was originally intended to be shot in 3-D. The report claims that "some technical holdups" have caused Soderbergh to scratch the 3-D plans, though the movie may be converted later.
Shooting on Contagion begins this month in Hong Kong and Chicago, for a scheduled release on October 21, 2011.
Posted 09.20.10 by Ryan -
Steven Soderbergh's script for action-thriller Contagion, which concerns an outbreak of a deadly virus, has finally been sold to Warner Brothers. Soderbergh had been shopping the script around Hollywood, having already assembled an impressive cast that includes Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Jude Law, and continues to grow.
Deadline Hollywood reports that Gwyneth Paltrow has joined the cast as well, and The Playlist reports that Laurence Fishburne is in talks to play a "major role" in the movie. Fishburne and the other actors will play a team of doctors and scientists that are brought together by the Center for Disease Control at the start of the virus outbreak.
Written by Bourne Ultimatum screenwriter Scott Z. Burns, Contagion has a set budget of $60 million dollars which ought to help pay for locations on four different continents.
Posted 02.25.10 by Ryan -
Steven Soderbergh may still retire like he announced last summer, but he's planning on finishing several projects first. Hard at work on the revenge thriller Knockout, Soderbergh already has several directorial projects lined up post-Knockout — the Spalding Grey documentary And Everything Is Going Fine and Cleo, a musical retelling of the story of Cleopatra set in the 1920s that stars Catherine Zeta-Jones. And now comes word that he plans to add another with Contagion, an action-thriller set during a worst-case scenario of a deadly virus.
According to Deadline Hollywood, the script has already attracted a cast that includes Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, and Jude Law. Written by Scott Z. Burns, who wrote Soderbergh's The Informant, the script is described as a "Traffic meets Bourne," which is fitting since Burns also co-wrote The Bourne Ultimatum. The script is expected to start a bidding war among movie studios given the cast and crew it has attracted.
Soderbergh is currently shooting Knockout, which has yet to receive a release date.
Posted 02.09.10 by Ryan