Now we’re confused. During a panel discussion at Comic Con for his new film “Haywire”, scheduled to be released in January, director Steven Soderbergh told the audience that rumors of his imminent retirement were being overstated.
“Matt Damon apparently is about as discrete as a 14-year-old girl,” he said at the time, alluding to an interview the actor gave to the Orlando Sentinel in which he said Soderbergh would be leaving the film business to focus on painting. “I had this drunken conversation with him while we were shooting ‘Contagion.’ And no one wants to hear in this economy about quitting a good job. It got blown out of proportion.”
Nevertheless, the director contradicted himself in a recent New York Times interview by telling them that he was indeed planning on shifting his focus.
“I’m interested in exploring another art form while I have the time and ability to do so,” he was quoted as saying. “I’ll be the first person to say if I can’t be any good at it and run out of money I’ll be back making another ‘Ocean”s movie.”
So what’s the real story, and what will happen with Soderbergh’s upcoming projects? While the Times claimed he’s still on track to direct Channing Tatum male-stripper film “Magic Mike”, “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” and his long-in-the-works Liberace biopic starring Damon, could George Clooney’s reported exit from “U.N.C.L.E.” today be an indication that the director is checking out even sooner?
I’m willing to bet that if Soderbergh does “retire”, it probably won’t last; at only 48 years old, he’s no doubt got several more good-to-great movies in him. And besides, how many times have we been duped by celebrity “retirement” stories before?