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Holiday Movies 2002

Find out about ''The Two Towers,'' the new ''Harry Potter'' and other winter flicks
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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY There are nine producers on Far From Heaven. You guys are two of them. How did you hook up with Todd Haynes?

SODERBERGH Safe [Haynes' 1995 indie drama about a woman for whom living in the world becomes physically toxic], to me, is just one of the best films made in this country -- a quintessential American film. When we first got up and running, we went over to the agents at CAA and said, ''We're a director-driven company; give us the list of people you're handling.'' Todd's name was on the list. He was trying to get Far From Heaven made, and they said, ''Why don't you jump on?'' It was a tough movie to make for the money -- just under $15 million, though it looks like it cost $50 million. There's no way to have a movie made under those circumstances in which you're not always being asked, ''Do we really have to spend money on X, Y, and Z?'' Our job was to go --

CLOONEY and SODERBERGH ''Yeah!''

SODERBERGH So much of the aesthetic of that film really came to play in postproduction. So it was really crucial that yes, we do need the titles to look like those Douglas Sirk movies, and yes, we do have to spend the money to get Elmer Bernstein to do the score, because he is the guy.... Boy, did Todd deliver.

CLOONEY And that Julianne Moore -- boy, is she going to do well.

SODERBERGH She's an up-and-comer, that one. What's she done?

CLOONEY She was on a soap. I hear that these days, it's verrrry easy to go from TV to film.

EW Does Section Eight have to worry about commercial success?

SODERBERGH Well, that is the tricky part: finding the balance of mainstream material that we want to do, which keeps the studio interested in underwriting the more outre material that we're also interested in. We do have that [mainstream] stuff: The Informant [a true-life corporate whistle-blowing tale], which I want to do with Matt Damon, and The Good German [a WWII drama], which George and I want to do together. And we've got Dillinger --

CLOONEY -- with Kimberly Peirce directing and David Mamet writing the screenplay. It's going to be really wild.

SODERBERGH They're genre films designed to be made with movie stars. If we're going to continue as producers, we have to be aware that [commercial viability] is part of it, and that's fine.

EW How did you feel about the performance of Welcome to Collinwood? While I found it entertaining, I thought it showed more promise than accomplishment.

CLOONEY It does feel like a stepping-stone film for the Russos. I think what kept it from [realizing its potential] was that they wanted to make something a little darker --

SODERBERGH More drama than comedy.

CLOONEY Yeah. And I think the story wasn't set up for that.

SODERBERGH My only regret was that I wasn't able to be around during the shoot because we were doing Ocean's Eleven. There would have been so many opportunities for me to talk to them about the things that are really worth worrying about, to give them a list of priorities, because directing a movie is just brain-crushing -- if you care.


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