After a brief holiday from making films, Steven Soderbergh is back with crime caper Logan Lucky that arrives in cinemas next month. The first trailer landed a few weeks ago that showcased a fun looking romp with Adam Driver, Channing Tatum, Riley Keough, Seth MacFarlane, Katie Holmes, and Daniel Craig doing some bonafide acting.
For most filmmakers having one film to concern yourself with would be enough, but Soderbergh has already shot his next film in secret, on an iPhone. According to Variety, the film is called Unsane, and it stars Juno Temple (Vinyl) and Claire Foy (The Crown). Another source claims that Soderbergh will self-distribute Unsane through his Fingerprint Releasing outlet, but it remains unclear if it will be theatrically released or a VOD exclusive.
In a recent interview with EW, Soderbergh revealed how the breakneck pace of making TV series The Knick helped him find his way back to making movies.
“First, I was not going to be directing at all and just really take a sabbatical. Right as we were going to Cannes with Behind the Candelabra, which was in my mind going to be the official start of my enforced vacation, I got the script for The Knick. So I went from not doing anything and exploring my future as a painter to starting to shoot a ten-hour television show in four months. The Knick scared me. We had to shoot 600 pages in 73 days. I’ve worked on some films with pretty aggressive schedules. This was on another order of magnitude, and I was terrified.
This was something that was keeping me up at nights, wondering if this was really too big a reach. About a week in, I realized that there was a rhythm that was actually really exhilarating to be had and we were going to make it. I was sitting there on set, realizing that this is the job that I should be doing. This is my job. I should be directing stuff. Nobody’s waiting around for my paintings. So I kind of flipped a switch. I got reconnected with what I like about the job. For a while, I was just very, very happy to be working in that form. I loved working with a ten-hour canvas. It was really fun, and I wasn’t really thinking about movies… until this script came in over the transom. If it hadn’t, I think everything would be TV oriented.”
I’ve only just started watching The Knick (yeah, I know it’s good, but come on, there’s more TV than hours in a lifetime), and it is home to some of the most audacious filmmaking from Soderbergh’s prolific career. Welcome back from not being gone at all Mr Soderbergh.
Logan Lucky is released on August 18.
