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Kirkinson wrote:I wouldn't be surprised if he's just doing these edits for his own edification and releasing them to the public because, he figures, why not?

I figured this too. More than fan edits, it's like music fans who re-do or salvage "lost" albums and post the results on the web (like completing SMiLE or trying to make a Let It Be that's faithful to the band's original intentions). Even if sharing was impossible, fans would still be doing these sort of projects for themselves.

Am I imagining things, or is the PQ of the Soderbergh edit better than anything currently available on home video?

Does anybody know anything about if/when there'll be a Blu-ray release of Solaris? As far as I can tell almost everything else he's done has been released on Blu-ray. The Limey is the only other one I can think of right now that's also not on BD.

ivuernis wrote:Does anybody know anything about if/when there'll be a Blu-ray release of Solaris? As far as I can tell almost everything else he's done has been released on Blu-ray. The Limey is the only other one I can think of right now that's also not on BD.

Kafka, Schizopolis, and The Good German are all unavailable on BD (as far as I know)

mfunk9786 wrote:Wonder what's going to happen to The Knick if Soderbergh is making movies again, and has to work that shooting schedule around the show? That's assuming Cinemax accepts the 4 year renewal proposal.

I was of the understanding that he wouldn't be directing the show anymore. [Caution, spoilers]

The Narrator Returns wrote:Steven Soderbergh Is Back to Destroy Hollywood

Jesus, why does the press feel the need to indulge in ridiculous hyperbole every time Soderbergh shifts gears with his career?

For another installment of wacky Soderbergh headlines: Steven Soderbergh Says He’s Done Directing Studio Movies and Wants to Only Shoot on iPhones — Sundance 2018.

The filmmaker has experimented with digital cinematography for years, going back to 2002’s “Full Frontal,” but found that the iPhone offered unparalleled quality. “People forget, this is a 4k capture,” said Soderbergh, who was long a passionate advocate for the high-end RED cameras. “I’ve seen it 40 feet tall. It looks like velvet. This is a gamechanger to me.”

...

"There’s a philosophical obstacle a lot of people have about the size of the capture device. I don’t have that problem. I look at this as potentially one of the most liberating experiences that I’ve ever had as a filmmaker, and that I continue having. The gets that I felt moment to moment were so significant that this is, to me, a new chapter."

It sounds like this has sort of been a long time coming; last year in a Logan Lucky interview expressed the following:

I want everything smaller and lighter so I can put the lens anywhere I want as fast as possible. It’s still frustrating to try to get a camera somewhere and if it’s above someone you have to secure it so if it falls it’s not going to hurt somebody. I want a camera that you can just Velcro to the wall.

The iPhone would seem to satisfy those wants. His praise for the image quality makes has me quite excited to see how Unsane turns out. There's also some stuff in the article worth checking out about his different attempts to democratize filmmaking with experimental economic and release models.

Also note: Soderbergh (like Fincher) supports RED, and may be surreptitiously laying the groundwork for RED's upcoming Hydrogen "phone". DPs, especially those in commercials, are already dealing with small cameras but not without artistic compromise (whatever the hell that means!). Despite what Soderbergh might say, higher resolution is not equal to "quality" cinematography.

Soderbergh will executive produce Gregg Araki's new TV show for Starz

“If this isn’t the craziest thing I’ve ever read, it’s tied for first,” said Soderbergh. “We will not be responsible for people’s heads splitting in half when they see it.”

I only really like Mysterious Skin but I'm rather partial to Nowhere and Kaboom and even when he is bad there's usually something I like about Araki's film. This sounds a lot like an updated version of Kaboom as well.
Is James Duvall old enough to play someone's father now?

Doom Generation remains his masterpiece. It may be time for interested parties to take another look at this, too.

The "Teenage Apocalypse" trilogy is (mostly) fantastic. I can't wait to see this.

Watched Pu-239, written and directed by longtime Soderbergh collaborator Scott Z Burns and executive produced by Soderbergh. The story of Russian nuclear plant worker Paddy Constantine, who is exposed to massive radiation and decides to smuggle a small quantity of weapons-grade plutonium out to sell so his family will be provided for after he dies. Unfortunately he can't seem to find any interested buyers other than the desperate Oscar Isaac as a young hustler facing his own ticking clock to doom. For the first half of the film the action alternates between the mopeyness of the Constantine storyline and the broad comedy of the Isaac portions, til both meet and we get the usual buddy movie bonding in miniature as Isaac proves time and again that one shouldn't do business with Russian criminals. The movie's finale is a quick series of downbeat notes capped with two bizarrely miscalculated sequences of audience wish fulfillment, one of which is so tasteless it's a shock when Burns actually pulls his punch in the end by not showing

Spoiler

the full effects of snorting weapons-grade plutonium like cocaine

since once has gone that far, might as well have the courage of your convictions and go all in. Other than Isaac showing tremendous promise in an early role, there's not much else here, and the ultimate wheelspinning of it all leaves little more than a shrug at best.

At this point not much would surprise me from this guy. "Steven Soderbergh to direct sequel to Passion of Joan of Arc." "Steven Soderbergh shoots sci-fi Western epic in a storage container in six days." "Steven Soderbergh has re-edited Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? so that all the dialogue is adverbs."

Somewhat throwaway line in this article says Soderbergh is preparing a six-part series with regular collaborator Lem Dobbs.

whaleallright wrote:At this point not much would surprise me from this guy. "Steven Soderbergh to direct sequel to Passion of Joan of Arc." "Steven Soderbergh shoots sci-fi Western epic in a storage container in six days." "Steven Soderbergh has re-edited Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? so that all the dialogue is adverbs."

Steamed Hams: The Musical, a live-action adaptation of this

diamonds wrote:Somewhat throwaway line in this article says Soderbergh is preparing a six-part series with regular collaborator Lem Dobbs.

Not regular enough! They've only completed one project together since The Limey 19 (!) years ago. (I count the fabulously contentious commentary track for the Limey DVD among Soderbergh's major works.) I'm really looking forward to this, whatever it turns out to be.

Some updates on Soderbergh's upcoming projects.

On the miniseries with Dobbs:

Dobbs and Soderbergh have been quietly been working on the project for a while now. It’s based on the life of Emin Pasha, a 19th-century adventurer/renaissance man who reinvented himself several times over. A German Jewish physician, naturalist, linguist, African explorer and colonial governor of Equatoria (a province of Egypt), Pasha lead an extraordinary life and according to Encyclopedia Britannica “contributed vastly to the knowledge of African geography, natural history, ethnology, and languages.”

Titled “Emin Pasha,” for now... the project, we’re told, is probably far off, so don’t put it on the calendar just yet.

The article also reveals that the Panama Papers film is now titled The Laundromat, set to shoot in the fall with a supposedly "powerhouse" cast.

Dobbs and Soderbergh have been quietly been working on the project for a while now. It’s based on the life of Emin Pasha, a 19th-century adventurer/renaissance man who reinvented himself several times over. A German Jewish physician, naturalist, linguist, African explorer and colonial governor of Equatoria (a province of Egypt), Pasha lead an extraordinary life and according to Encyclopedia Britannica “contributed vastly to the knowledge of African geography, natural history, ethnology, and languages.”

this sounds like a very ambitious project, so I'm guessing it will take Soderbergh at least seven weeks to shoot and edit.

Has he ever talked about wanting to do a horror movie?