In an interview with Studio 360’s Kurt Andersen Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Erin Brockovich, Ocean’s Eleven) confirmed recent rumors he was going to retire from filmmaking after directing Liberace with Matt Damon and Michael Douglas and Man From U.N.C.L.E. starring George Clooney.
The Hollywood Reporter quotes Soderbergh saying:
“When you reach the point where you’re like if I have to get into a van to do anther scout I’m just going to shoot myself, it’s time to let somebody else who’s still excited about getting in the van, get in the van… It’s just a sense of having been there before.
“The making of any art is problem solving, and as you work at it, you’re able to eliminate the versions that aren’t any good faster, but at a certain point the salves sort of become the same. And when I started feeling like I’ve done this shot before, I’ve dpne a scene that’s about this before, that’s when I started thinking seriously about a shift. But also I don’t want to leave you know, when you see those athletes hang on one or two seasons too long, it’s kind of sad.”
None of this comes as much of a surprise when you take into consideration the editorial I wrote last January headlined “Do Movies Matter Anymore? Steven Soderbergh Doesn’t See Any Evidence They Do” in which I included quotes from Soderbergh included on the Criterion edition of Che where he said, “It also made me consider the issue of whether or not movies matter anymore… at all. I think there was a period where they did matter, culturally, but I don’t think they do anymore. So, that added to the sense of what was the point of eight years of work, when movies, I think, have become so disposable.”
Soderbergh has two films releasing this year. The first is Haywire, a spy thriller written starring MMA fighter Gina Carano as a black ops soldier on a mission of revenge after she’s double crossed by one of her teammates. The other film is Contagion, a deadly virus feature taking place over four continents and starring an all-star cast including Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Laurence Fishburne, John Hawkes, Josie Ho, Demetri Martin, Jennifer Ehle, Bryan Cranston, Elliott Gould and Sanaa Lathan.
You can listen to the full interview here.
