Remember back when Steven Soderbergh was going to retire? Yeah, that doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen. Recently the director was all set to make a big screen adaptation of the old TV show The Man From U.N.C.L.E., which was going to be one of his last movies ever; but once casting and budget problems got too out of hand on that project, the director decided to drop it and move on with his life. That sounds like a pretty obvious decision for a man who has said repeatedly in interviews that he’s over the whole filmmaking thing and wants to move on. Why tear your hair out dealing with a movie that just isn’t coming together?
But, in comparison, the newest move the director has made makes less sense, given the context of his recent comments. According to THR he has signed on for a new project called The Bitter Pill. This new film will see Soderbergh re-teaming with his The Informant! and Contagion writer Scott Z. Burns, and is said to be a thriller set in the world of psychopharmacology. Little else is known about the project, however.
So what’s the deal with Soderbergh signing on to do another movie? Does the movie-making business have its claws in him more than he is willing to admit? Was the pitch he got for this project just too damn good to pass up? Will he drop out of this one as well if another laundry list of Hollywood’s leading men look to star in it but then move on to other things?
The future of Soderbergh’s career seems to be pretty up in the air at this point, but at least we all know we still have Haywire coming out soon. Hopefully that will be enough to hold us over until this guy gets his head together. And maybe we’ll be hearing about Ocean’s Fourteen soon after all.