...and The Hollywood Reporter has the details:Steven Soderbergh says he's done with Hollywood.
The Oscar-winning filmmaker -- whose credits include Traffic, Erin Brockovich and Ocean's Eleven and its two sequels -- said in an interview with Studio 360's Kurt Anderson that after he shoots his next two films he's planning to retire from filmmaking.
"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," he said. "And so it's just time. For the last three years, I've been turning down everything that comes my way, so you're not going to have Steven Soderbergh to kick around anymore," he quipped.
Anderson played a clip from a previous interview he conducted with Damon, star of Soderbergh's upcoming Haywire, who said the director had told him he was planning to retire to possibly become a painter or photographer.
"It's just a sense of having been there before," Soderbergh said. "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."
Soderbergh said he's got two more movies to shoot -- Liberace, starring Matt Damon and Michael Douglas, and Man From U.N.C.L.E., starring George Clooney -- and then he's going to call it quits.
"That's a great way to sort of step off," he said.
It's a bummer, but life goes on...
ReplyDeleteI find it so odd when I hear about directors "retiring," when there's nothing to retire from. It's like acting or writing; you're never "too old" to do those things for a living. Hell, Kurosawa was working on films well into his 80s, and John Huston was in a wheelchair and using oxygen tanks when he was directing The Dead.
ReplyDeleteMy gut tells me that Soderbergh (maybe even Smith) will step away for a few years, realize how much he misses filmmaking, and then make a comeback.
Well, Soderbergh I feel like will be back, but Smith has been very clear he's only stopping with theatrical film-making, and with the podcasting network up and running, his internet radio station about to launch, and the plan in place to help distribute small indie films, I don't see him making another film after Hit Somebody, but perhaps something in Television or on the net.
ReplyDelete