A Wunderkind Grows Up

Comments +
Add comment

All About

Steven Soderbergh

Get the latest photos, news, and more

Beneath his deadpan presence, Steven Soderbergh betrays a wry amusement at just about everything, including himself. Schizopolis, he claims, is nothing he takes too seriously. But it did do its home-movie-as-career-therapy trick. "It rekindled my interest in directing," he says. While editing the film in his Baton Rouge, La., home, he took 10 days out to shoot Gray's Anatomy, which recently opened in New York. The first Spalding Gray monologue film to employ hypnotic visuals rather than a live audience, it's by turns hilarious and haunting as it details Gray's battle with a mysterious eye condition.

Working on these two small projects — Schizopolis truly refreshes the word independent — seems to have set Soderbergh free. He recently signed on to direct an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's comic thriller Out of Sight starring George Clooney; it begins shooting in October. "It's a great piece of material," says Soderbergh. "Very funny, but not gag funny. The tone is slightly different from Get Shorty, maybe a bit darker." But is he ready, once again, to grab the levers of a big-budget machine? "What I realized, finally, is that I don't always want to work that way, and I don't always want to make movies in the Schizopolis vein. I like parts of both. Two years ago, the idea of doing Out of Sight would have seemed like a prison sentence. Now it seems like the most exciting thing in the world."

Originally posted Apr 04, 1997 Published in issue #373 Apr 04, 1997 Order article reprints

Previous Page 1 2

Comments +
Add comment

Hollywood Insider Finally, Channing Tatum is an overnight success
TV Article Matt Bomer and Joe Manganiello: From college buddies to costars
Features Steven Soderbergh gets busy
Monitor Monitor: Jan. 20, 2012
Hollywood Insider Michael Fassbender mixes pleasure, pain in 'Haywire'

Add your comment

The rules: Keep it clean, and stay on the subject or we might delete your comment. If you see inappropriate language, e-mail us. An asterisk * indicates a required field.