Steven Soderbergh has been off our screens as a director since 2013 when he directed the HBO feature Behind The Candelabra. He has, in the years since however, acted as producer, director of photography and editor on Magic Mike XXL and directed every episode of the Clive Owen TV drama The Knick. Following the initial ‘directing retirement’, Soderbergh returns wielding a megaphone for the forthcoming heist film Lucky Logan later this year.
The film stars Daniel Craig, Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, and Riley Keough and revolves around the world of three siblings who plan a heist at the Charlotte Motor Speedway just before the biggest race of the year. The filmmaker sat down to talk to Entertainment Weekly about his next film, which has a lot of similarities to arguably his most famous work, the Ocean’s Eleven trilogy.
“On the most obvious level, it’s the complete inversion of an Ocean’s movie. It’s an anti-glam version of an Ocean’s movie,” he said.
“Nobody dresses nice. Nobody has nice stuff. They have no money. They have no technology. It’s all rubber band technology, and that’s what I thought was fun about it. It seemed familiar to me, but different enough.”
“The landscape, the characters, and the canvass were the complete opposite of an Ocean’s film. What was weird is that I was working as a producer on Ocean’s Eight while we were shooting Logan, and it was kind of head-spinning. That’s like a proper Ocean’s film. This is a version of an Ocean’s movie that’s up on cement blocks in your front yard,” he added.
So, what made him return to directing after his self-imposed retirement then? The outlet asked him.
“I was sitting there on [The Knick] 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… 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.”
Lucky Logan is set for a summer release with the UK penciled in for August 25th.
