Last summer, Steven Soderbergh announced that he may be retiring from filmmaking in a few years. We can only hope that this was said out of disappointment for losing control of Moneyball and so shouldn't be taken seriously.
The next few years will tell whether Soderbergh was speaking in earnest, but in the meantime he's continuing his trend as one of the most versatile and prolific directors working today. He's already laid the foundation for the current indie movement with Sex, Lies, and Videotape. He's done major Hollywood projects like Ocean's Eleven and Erin Brockovich while simultaneously creating experimental works like Schizopolis and Bubble, which he released simultaneously in theaters and on DVD. And of course, he suffered through the six-hour biopic Che, which he cited as a brutally stressful shoot.
Now, The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that the 46-year-old director shot a movie in secret while in Australia. Soderbergh spent last month with Cate Blanchett's Sydney Theater Company directing Tot Mom, his documentary-style play about the media storm surrounding a Florida girl's disappearance.
At some point, it seems Soderbergh shot a movie on-the-fly with the play's cast members. Company actor Rhys Muldoon described it as a ''pretty much improvised film." Of course, Soderbergh isn't allowed to reveal any details, which gives the project a nice, manufactured air of mystery.
In the meantime, Soderbergh already has several projects lined up for 2010, including the Spalding Grey documentary And Everything Is Going Fine, the Gina Carano vehicle Knockout, and the biopic Liberace, starring Matt Damon alongside Michael Douglas in the title role.
Posted 01.06.10 by reelz