The Soderbergh Experience

Perhaps there's not a more prolific contemporary auteur with a more varied resume than Steven Soderbergh, and that's just looking at what he has in store in the next year: three, maybe even four films that have absolutely no connective tissue, other than a huge, starry (and extremely varied) ensemble players.  Perhaps there's nothing surprising about that at all for a filmmaker that made waves, first in 1989 for exploring modern relationships and sexual insecurities and rightfully earned its place as a defining indie for a new generation (the film was sex, lies and videotapes, and won the filmmaker the Palme D'Or at that years Cannes Film Festival and went on to earn an Original Screenplay Oscar nomination and cultivate a fascinating reputation from actors), then eleven years later for earning two Best Director Oscar nominations for two highly different films, Erin Brockovich and Traffic.  One a highly respectable and rousing (if conventional, by his standards only) vehicle that earned a certain Pretty Woman an Academy Award, the other a gritty, intensely challenging ensemble epic on the drug war seen from the prism of the dealers, the bureaucrats, the addicts, and everyone else.  In the interim between his breakthrough and his second and third breakthrough, Soderbergh ran the gambit of nutty, sometimes surreal, tiny indies-- Kafka (1991), King of the Hill (1993), Gray's Anatomy (1996), Schizopolis (1996)-- anyone?-- to the critically appraised noirs Out of Sight (1998) and The Limey (1999.)  After the Academy acceptance, he seemed to be both iconoclast and company man at the same time with the enterprising (and lucrative) Ocean's Eleven franchise, playing alongside headier stuff like Solaris (2002), Full Frontal (2002), Bubble (2005), The Good German (2006) and Che (2008.)  Some of them worked, some did not, but the "keep going" aesthetic that's always been the foundation of Soderbergh's work is what's awe-inspiring and the ultra experimental vibe that's expressed nearly every time out is what keeps his films moving and interesting.  That rumors have surfaced that the famed, black-spectacle framed writer\director\cinematography (under the alias Peter Andrews) might be retiring soon seems like a shame and a loss.  If that's true, I suppose his making up for it by making a billion movies now, starring nearly everyone with a Screen Actors Guild card.

I normally reserve comment for upcoming movies because, really why be like everyone else and fan the flame of hype for something that's not going to reach cinema screens for months, or years, or ever.  But Soderbergh has always been a filmmaker on the move, it seems, so projects lined up soon, likely will have their day.

This September, he opens Contagion starring (gasp)- Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Laurence Fishburne, Marion Cotillard and Jude Law in a Outbreak-style virus gone berserk film.  The kick, at the very least from the trailer and the marketing is that it looks like a sure hoot.  Quite possibly a state of Soderbergh doing on for them (the evil corporate bluebloods), or a pure popcorn, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World-style ensemble disaster film, or perhaps both, or neither-- one never knows with Soderbergh.

Whatever the case, and we already can surmise the outlook does not look good for Paltrow, this is likely the next must see film of 2011.

Wasting no time, Soderbergh's follow-up is slated for release next January-- an action\revenge thriller entitled Haywire.  With another super starry cast-- Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas and Bill Paxton join the Soderbergh experience, along with Traffic alum Michael Douglas.  On first glimpse, the trailer seemed a bit too generic and a bit on the nose for a Soderbergh film, but again, this is an auteur whose films traditionally don't exactly have traditionally-backed marketing designs.  And who knows, it might all be a lark anyway.  Awesome poster art however-- surely not the final design...

It gets nuttier, as the follow-up to Haywire is potentially a comedy set in the world of male strippers entitled Magic Mike, with a cast of many a gay male's wet dreams-- Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer (model-turned-actor of I Am Number Four), Matt Bomer, Matthew McConaughey, and True Blood's Joe Manganiello.  That coupled with the rumored casting of Demi Moore (the kitsch factor of the Striptease debacle might be worth the price of admission alone), and this would single-handedly the strangest, most potentially embarrassing (or awesome) film to come out in some time.  Perhaps Soderbergh's main objective isn't to work with every actor living, but to work with as many Sexiest Men Alive as possible, surely he's set a world record for an Oscar-winning, respected filmmaker (Clooney, Damon, Pitt, now McConaughey)-- possibly he's secretly commissioned by People Magazine.  Then again, who knows, this could be his Boogie Nights...

That he's rumored to follow Magic Mike up with his long-awaited Liberace biopic (with currently attached actors Michael Douglas and Matt Damon), one may have to suspect that Soderbergh might just secretly be the most gay-friendly filmmaker currently working.

Whatever the angle, the most versatile auteur currently on good terms with mainstream Hollywood has, at the very least, my attention.