‘Logan Lucky’: Steven Soderbergh Says His First Film in Four Years Is ‘An Anti-Glam Version of an Ocean’s Movie’
As retirements go, Steven Soderbergh’s lasted just a little longer than Terry Funk’s. That’s in part because the prolific writer/director never stopped working after “Behind the Candelabra,” even if his masterful work on “The Knick” aired on the small screen rather than the silver one. He’s returning to feature filmmaking with this summer’s “Logan Lucky,” which he says he decided to direct because he “couldn’t bear the thought of somebody else getting to do it.”
That’s from a new Entertainment Weekly interview about the film, a caper starring Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Riley Keough and Daniel Craig. Soderbergh says that, despite any superficial similarities to a certain heist trilogy he directed, “Logan Lucky” is actually “the complete inversion of an ‘Ocean’s’ movie. It’s an anti-glam version of an Ocean’s movie. 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….This is a version of an ‘Ocean’s’ movie that’s up on cement blocks in your front yard.”
As for his retirement — which he says was really intended as more of a sabbatical — Soderbergh credits “The Knick” with bringing him back: “About a week in, I realized that there was a rhythm that was actually really exhilarating to be had and we were going to make it,” he says.
“I was sitting there on set, realizing that this is the job that I should be doing. This is my job,” he continues. “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.”
Read the entire interview — which includes details of the unique distribution model Soderbergh has planned for “Logan Lucky” — at EW.
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