Best Known As: The Oscar-winning director of the Oceans Eleven films
Steven Soderbergh won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival for his 1989 film sex, lies and videotape (starring James Spader). The movie was a critical sensation and is often credited with launching the independent film boom of the 1990s. After making several offbeat low-budget films, Soderberg hit the mainstream with the 1998 crime romance Out of Sight with Jennifer Lopez and George Clooney. In 2001 Soderbergh was nominated twice for an Academy Award as best director, for the drug drama Traffic (with Benicio Del Toro and Michael Douglas) and the biopic Erin Brockovich (starring Julia Roberts). He won the Oscar for Traffic. He then shifted emotional gears to direct Clooney, Roberts, Brad Pitt and Don Cheadle in a big-budget remake of the old Frank Sinatra Las Vegas heist film Ocean's Eleven (2001). Two sequels followed: Ocean's Twelve (2004) and Ocean's Thirteen (2007). Somewhat like Ang Lee, Soderbergh eagerly shifts genres and experiments with new techniques, from the shot-on-digital-video quickie Full Frontal (2002) to the eerie science fiction remake Solaris (2002) to the biography of revolutionary Che Guevara (2008). He also has produced many projects, including the political docudrama series K Street.
Soderbergh often works as his own cinematographer, crediting himself under the name Peter Andrews... Soderbergh's 2006 film Bubble was the first mainstream movie released simultaneously in theaters, on television and on DVD... Soderbergh and Clooney started their own production company, Section Eight, in 2000.
Career Highlights: sex, lies, and videotape, Traffic, Erin Brockovich
First Major Screen Credit: Yes: 9012 Live (1985)
Biography
At the age of 26, Steven Soderbergh permanently altered the face of independent cinema when he became the youngest-ever winner of the Palme d'Or at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival for sex, lies and videotape, his feature-film directorial debut. A simmering exploration of the nature of modern relationships and the links between sexuality and voyeurism, the film was an international sensation that established its director as one of the golden boys of world cinema.
Born in Georgia on January 14, 1963, Soderbergh grew up in Baton Rouge, LA, where his father was the Dean of Louisiana State University's College of Education. While still in high school, Soderbergh enrolled in the university's film animation class and began making short 16 mm films with second-hand equipment. After he graduated from high school, he went to Hollywood, where he worked as a freelance editor. Soderbergh's time in Hollywood was brief, and he soon returned home, where he continued making short films and writing scripts. One of his films, a documentary about the rock group Yes, earned him an assignment to direct a full-length concert film for the band. The finished product, 9012 Live, was nominated for a 1986 Grammy.
Following this achievement, Soderbergh filmed the short subject Winston, a study of sexual gamesmanship that he would expand into sex, lies and videotape. In the wake of the 1989 film's great success, Soderbergh made Kafka, a darkly comic fictional account of the author's life. The austere film turned out to be something of a disappointment, as did the modest King of the Hill, Soderbergh's 1993 portrait of a young boy's coming-of-age during the Depression. The Underneath, his 1995 film, was a post-noir crime drama that offered further existential meditation and an exploration of the destructive effects of sexuality: unfortunately, like Soderbergh's previous two efforts, it remained mired in relative obscurity. The same could be said of Schizopolis and Gray's Anatomy (both 1996), the former a loopy, inventive look at the intricacies of communication that Soderbergh termed an "artistic wake-up call" to himself, the latter a filmed performance of one of Spalding Gray's monologues.
In 1998, Soderbergh made good on his "wake-up call" with Out of Sight, his most critically and commercially successful film since sex, lies and videotape. Adapted from the novel by Elmore Leonard, it was an irreverent, enjoyable affair that remained true to the book's spirit and featured believable chemistry between leads George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez. The following year, Soderbergh continued on his critical winning streak with The Limey, the generally well-received tale of an ex-con (Terence Stamp) bent on revenge for his daughter's mysterious death. He earned even greater plaudits in 2000 as the director of Erin Brockovich; starring Julia Roberts as its eponymous secretary-heroine who uncovers a major environmental scandal, the film was enthusiastically embraced by audiences and critics alike.
Later that same year, Soderbergh raised the bar on issue-oriented drama with Traffic, a multi-layered, multi-character look at the United States' "War on Drugs." The long-gestating project started life as a British miniseries in the early '90s; when Soderbergh realized director Ed Zwick was working on his own exposé on the same subject, the two joined forces, with Zwick producing. Originally developed at Fox with Harrison Ford in the lead, Traffic then switched hands to the major-indie studio USA Films when Ford dropped out, and Michael Douglas snapped up the part. Easily Soderbergh's most ambitious effort, the 50 million-dollar production boasted a seven-city shooting schedule with over 100 speaking parts; almost a third of which were spoken completely in Spanish. What's more, the director insisted on serving as cinematographer for the primarily hand-held, naturally lit film. (Soderbergh originally wanted his credit to read "photographed and directed by," but since WGA regulations prohibit a cinematographer to be credited over a screenwriter, he opted for a pseudonym, Peter Andrews -- his father's first and middle names.)
The gamble paid off, both critically and commercially. Soderbergh's touch with actors yielded best-yet performances from Catherine Zeta-Jones, Miguel Ferrer, and Benicio Del Toro, the latter of whom walked away with a slew of year-end critics awards, a Golden Globe, and an Oscar. The film itself shared a berth with Brockovich when the Academy Awards nominations were announced, and Soderbergh made it into the history books as the first person to be doubly nominated for Best Director for two films that were also both nominated for Best Picture. When the winners were finally announced, Traffic earned four Oscars including a Best Director statue for Soderbergh; his work on Brockovich helped snag a long-awaited Best Actress Oscar for Roberts. Meanwhile, on the profits side, Traffic became the most successful film yet produced by USA -- a company previously known for highly praised and little-seen mid-budget films.
Soderbergh then plunged headlong into two big-budget adaptations of classic films, both starring his Out of Sight muse George Clooney: 2001's Ocean's Eleven and 2002's Solaris. The former, a star-laden update of 1960's Rat Pack favorite, garnered favorable reviews and a box-office total of more than $180 million -- the director's biggest take yet. The latter marked Soderbergh's return to screenwriting: Encouraged by producer James Cameron to adapt Stanislaw Lem's philosophical sci-fi short story, Soderbergh also signed on to direct in the wake of his 2000 Oscar win. Rather than tamper with director Andrei Tarkovsky's acclaimed 1972 adaptation of Solaris, Soderbergh promised his version would be closer in spirit to the source material. Despite an economical editing job and generally-encouraging reviews, Solaris proved baffling to audiences, who let the moody, psychological sci-fi film die a quick death. Between these high-profile projects, the director even managed to sandwich in a $2 million ensemble piece, shot mostly on digital video in less than three weeks. 2002's Full Frontal reunited him for the third time with Julia Roberts, but Soderbergh's grungy, esoteric take on the discord between movie life and "real" life was generally reviled by critics and completely ignored at the box office. The director would retreat to safer waters in 2004 with the successful sequel Ocean's Twelve, a more self-reflexive, globe-trotting take on the first film that reunited most of the original cast.
A string of almost deliberately obscure work followed. On HBO, Soderbergh and Clooney satisfied their political leanings with K Street, a gritty, fly-on-the-wall soap that attempted to meld fiction with documentary as it charted the lives of two high-powered lobbyists (played by high-powered lobbyists James Carville and Mary Matalin). The drab Midwestern anti-thriller Bubble boasted a unique releasing scheme, in which it premiered on pay-per-view cable, in art-house theaters and on DVD at the same time in early 2006 - a marketing first that Soderbergh and production company 2929 Entertainment predicted would be the way of the future. Critical notices for the shot-on-video, non-professionally cast film were positive if not overwhelmingly so, and Bubble saw brisker business on DVD than it might have otherwise. A less-happy fate befell The Good German later that year. A considerably higher-budgeted tale of romantic intrigue set in post-WWII Berlin starring Clooney and Cate Blanchett, the material called to mind Casablanca, The Third Man and other wartime noirs so strongly, Soderbergh decided to shoot the film using cameras and techniques from its era. The resulting black-and-white prestige pic divided critics who found it either enthrallingly retro or needlessly opaque and austere; whatever their opinions, the film failed to catch on with audiences after a meager awards-season release from Warner Bros. Once again, Soderbergh licked his wounds by providing the company with another installment of its profitable Ocean's franchise in summer 2007.
In addition to his directorial work, Soderbergh has also served as a producer and screenwriter for other directors' projects; he first made major headway into the world of producing when he and Clooney opened up an exclusive, first-look deal to develop projects under the shingle Section Eight in late 2001. Among Section Eight's first endeavors were pictures helmed by Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven), and Christopher Nolan (Insomnia); though the shingle rarely produced runaway hits, through it, Soderbergh was able to show support for micro-budgeted debuts not unlike his own. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
American film director Steven Soderbergh (born 1963) came to fame with his 1989 feature debut, "sex, lies, and videotape".The movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was largely responsible for the escalation of independent films in the 1990s. In2001, the eclectic filmmaker reached new heights by being the first person in over 60 years to receive double Academy Award nominations for best director, and the first ever to have both those films, "Traffic"and "Erin Brockovich",nominated for best picture as well.
Baseball to Movies
Soderbergh was born the second of six siblings on January 14, 1963, in Atlanta, Georgia. When he was still very young, his family moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where his father was a professor and dean of Louisiana State University's College of Education. As a boy, Soderbergh was an avid and talented baseball player, but the gift suddenly deserted him at the age of 12. "I woke up one morning, and I didn't have it," he told Jess Cagle of Time. "And I knew that I wasn't gonna be able to get it back. Whatever the thing was, it was just gone." Happily, he had another natural aptitude lying in wait.
The teenaged Soderbergh became interested in making movies, and started taking film classes at Louisiana State. Finding he had a flair for the medium, he obtained some secondhand equipment and began making short 16mm films, including his short film Janitor. Still immersed in this newfound passion, upon his graduation from high school Soderbergh decided to pass up college and head directly to Hollywood.
Music Video to Feature Film
Soderbergh began his Hollywood career as a freelance film editor, working on such projects as television's Games People Play, while subsidizing himself by working in a video arcade. He also continued to write scripts and make short films, both in California and back home in Baton Rouge. One of those films, a documentary about the rock band Yes, led to Soderbergh's first big break when he was asked to direct a full - length concert film for the group. The resulting video, Yes: 9012 Live, earned the young director a nomination for a Grammy Award in 1986.
Next up was a 1987 short subject movie called Winston, which evolved into the project that put Soderbergh on the cinematic map. That project was his writing/directorial debut feature film, sex, lies, and videotape, an intimate and innovative exploration of personal relationships starring James Spader and Andie MacDowell. Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in 1989, the movie took both critics and audiences by storm. It garnered Soderbergh the coveted Palm d'Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival (at only 26, he was the youngest director to have received such an honor at the time) and an Academy Award nomination for the best original screenplay. Not incidentally, sex, lies, and videotape, which was made for $1.2 million and went on to earn nearly $100 million worldwide, lent a financial viability to independent and independent - like movies that precipitated a huge upsurge in the genre and propelled them from art houses into mainstream theaters. Soderbergh, however, never took the acclaim, or himself, too seriously. In 1998, he commented on the picture to Dennis Lim of London's Independent Sunday. "It's OK," he said. "It's better directed than it is written, and better acted than it is directed. It is a film that is of a very specific period. There was something in the air that I managed to grab hold of, something that must have been on other people's minds as well."
A Fresh Start
Soderbergh followed up his tremendous initial success with 1991's Kafka and 1993's King of the Hill. The former, starring Jeremy Irons, was both a critical and box office failure. And although the Depression - era King of the Hill caught the critics' attention, audiences did not generally notice it. In 1994, Soderbergh reached his nadir while filming The Underneath, a remake of the 1948 film noir classic Criss Cross. "The most sobering aspect of making The Underneath," he told Lim, "was to sit on a set and not feel excited about what I was doing. I realised it was just because I'd drifted into an area that wasn't very challenging or ambitious." But unlike his childhood epiphany about baseball, Soderbergh's career doubts were only temporary. This time, he recognized what had happened and what was needed to rally. The director told Cagle that his film talent "had left the building, but I knew it was still within the city limits. I just needed to tear down everything and start over." So he did.
Soderbergh got his creative juices flowing again by packing up a small group of friends and heading back to Baton Rouge to make the wacky autobiographical comedy Schizopolis. Acting as director, writer, cinematographer, and star, Soderbergh used the movie as a professional and personal catharsis. (Among other things, he cast his soon - to - be ex - wife, Betsy Brantley, and their daughter, Sarah, as his film family). The result, along with Gray's Anatomy, (both released in 1997) worked the magic Soderbergh had hoped for, but their lack of commercial appeal left an unexpected side effect. He recalled that time for John H. Richardson of Esquire as, ". . . having done those two films and having them seen by no one, I found myself in this weird spot of being excited about working again, but not being able to get a job." The next year, however, both creativity and gainful employment would again coincide.
Mainstream Success
In 1998, Soderbergh was launched into mainstream cinema with the release of his screen adaptation of the Elmore Leonard novel Out of Sight, starring George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez. While his recent creative and professional challenges made him feel a great deal of pressure while making the movie, the experience was also rather liberating. As he told Graham Fuller of Interview, "It was such a relief to be working on something that wasn't important with a capital I. Not that I've made important movies in my career, but its lack of pretension was nice. I'm glad it wasn't a serious, self - important piece of drivel. . . . If you go into a piece of Elmore Leonard material with the idea that you're making a substantial social statement, I think you're going to ruin it." The movie was a critical and box office success, giving Soderbergh's career a new lease on life.
The Limey, a smaller scale gangster film starring Terrence Stamp, was released in 1999. The following year, Soderbergh made a pair of pictures that cemented his name in the movie business. The first movie was Erin Brockovich, with superstar Julia Roberts, which was based on the true story of a single mother who discovers an environmental scandal. The second movie was Traffic, a thriller about the illegal drug trade that starred Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta - Jones. Although Traffic, based on a British miniseries, was slow getting off the ground, the films were mainstream Hollywood movies with stellar casts. And they were big hits. Soderbergh was nominated for Academy Awards for best director for both pictures in 2001, the first time a double director nomination had happened since 1938. In addition, both movies were also nominated for best picture, the first time such a "double - double" nomination had ever occurred. Credibility firmly back in place, Soderbergh won the 2001 Oscar for best director for Traffic.
Eclectic Visionary
Throughout the years, Soderbergh acquired a reputation for being an "actor's director," culling impressive performances from big adult stars and unknown child actors alike. He also was known for working in the trenches (he joined the cinematographers' union in order to wield his own camera and was the cinematographer, for instance, on Traffic) and for his ability to unify his casts. "A lot of people can tell stories," actress Julia Roberts told Cagle, "but a lot of people can't rally the troops the way Steven does. He's the most fun guy to make a movie with." Equally important, the body of Soderbergh's work was impossible to pigeonhole.
Soderbergh followed up his triumph at the Academy Awards with the 2001 superstar vehicle Ocean's Eleven. A remake of the 1960s movie with the old Hollywood Rat Pack (including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr.), the new version featured such contemporary big names as Brad Pitt, Clooney, and Roberts. The next year, he did another abrupt turnaround with Full Frontal, an experimental art film with Roberts, Pitt, and Blair Underwood. Working under a $2 million budget, the director convinced his stars to work for union scale and handle their own driving, hair, and makeup. The movie was shot in 18 days. Then it was back to the big budget world, with the 2002 science fiction picture, Solaris. Along the way, Soderbergh also founded a production company, Section Eight Productions, with Clooney, and produced such movies as 2002's Insomnia. Indeed, by 2004, Soderbergh's films had run the gamut from independent to mainstream, big money to shoestring, disturbing to playful, and most points in between. But, as Soderbergh explained to Fuller, he would not have had it any other way. "I go for whatever engages me at the time," he said. "I have no rules about what I will or won't make. I'm certainly hard put to remember when a filmmaker has gone from a $350,000 movie to a $49 million movie, but I think doing either of those kinds of movies exclusively could be stagnating."
Soderbergh also cultivated a certain lack of ego that allowed him to roam freely among film styles and forms. He outlined the reason for that ability to Richardson, "I'm not a visionary. I'm just not . . . Fellini, Bergman, Kurosawa, you know, those are people who alter the landscape. David Lynch I would put in that category. Altman I would put in that category. But I'm not one of those people. What I am is a dedicated, passionate craftsman who is trying to get better."
At least as telling were Soderbergh's hopes about probing the possibilities of his chosen medium in the future. "I think the reason I've jumped around so much is . . . there's a kind of film out there that I can't even quite articulate, but I think can be made and should be made," he told Richardson. "I may go to my deathbed feeling like I never figured out what it was. I feel like there have been leaps made during certain periods of time and that there hasn't been a leap made in a while. I think that it's too rich a medium for there not to be another level to go to. First, I've got to try and figure out what it is."
Periodicals
Cincinnati Post, March 20, 2001.
Esquire, August, 2002.
Houston Chronicle, July 27, 2002.
Independent Sunday (London, England), November 22, 1998.
Soderbergh was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the son of Mary Ann (née Bernard) and Peter Andrew Soderbergh, who was a university administrator and educator.[1] He has Swedish ancestry (the family's original surname in Swedish, Söderberg, was changed to Soderbergh when they immigrated to the United States). When he was a child, his family moved from Atlanta to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where his father became Dean of Education at Louisiana State University (LSU). There he discovered filmmaking as a teenager, directing short Super 8 mm films with equipment borrowed from LSU students.[2]
His primary high school education was at Louisiana State University Laboratory School, a K-12 school that is directed by the University. While still taking classes there around the age of fifteen, Soderbergh enrolled in the university's film animation class and began making short 16 mm films with secondhand equipment.[3]
Rather than attending LSU, Soderbergh tried his luck in Hollywood after graduating from high school; he worked as a game show scorer and cue card holder to make ends meet, and eventually found work as a freelance film editor.[4] His big break came when he directed the Grammy-nominated concert video 9012Live for the rock band Yes in 1985.[5]
Breakthrough: sex, lies, and videotape
It wasn't until Soderbergh came back to Baton Rouge that he conceived the idea for sex, lies, and videotape (1989), which he wrote in eight days.[6] The independent film won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, became a worldwide commercial success and greatly contributed to the 1990s independent film revolution. At age 26, Soderbergh became the youngest director to win the festival's top award.[7] Movie critic Roger Ebert dubbed Soderbergh the "poster boy of the Sundance generation".[8]
Making good on his Schizopolis-inspired "artistic wake-up call," his commercial slump ended in 1998 with Out of Sight, a stylized adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel, written by Scott Frank and starring George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez.[9] The film was widely praised, though only a moderate box-office success. It reaffirmed Soderbergh's potential, sparking the beginnings of a lucrative artistic partnership between Clooney and Soderbergh.
1999 and 2000
Soderbergh followed up on the success of Out of Sight by making another crime caper, The Limey (1999), from an original screenplay by Lem Dobbs and starring veteran actors Terence Stamp and Peter Fonda. The film was well-received, but not as much as Erin Brockovich (2000), a "Rocky movie" he directed, written by Susannah Grant and starring Julia Roberts in her Oscar-winning role as a single mother taking on industry in a civil action.[10] Later that year, Soderbergh released Traffic, a social drama written by Stephen Gaghan and featuring an ensemble cast.
Ocean's Eleven (2001), featuring an all-star cast and flashy aesthetics, is Soderbergh's highest grossing movie to date, grossing more than $183 million domestically and more than $450 million worldwide.[11][12] The film's star, George Clooney, subsequently appeared in Solaris (2002), marking the third time the two have headlined a film. In the same year, Soderbergh made Full Frontal which was shot mostly on digital video in an improvisional style that deliberately blurred the line between which actors were playing characters and which were playing fictionized versions of themselves. A film within a film, the title is a film industry reference to an actor or actress appearing fully nude (aka, "full frontal nudity"). Also in 2002, Soderbergh was elected First Vice President of the Directors Guild of America.[13]
Following up Full Frontal stylistically was Soderbergh next project, K Street (2003), a ten-part political HBO series he co-produced with Clooney. The series was noteworthy for being both partially improvised and each episode being produced in the 5 days prior to airing to take advantage of topical events that could be worked into the fictional narrative. Actual political players appeared as themselves, either in cameos or fictionalized versions of themselves (as were the leads, real life husband and wife James Carville and Mary Matalin). The show caused a stir during the 2004 Democratic Primary when Carville gave candidate Howard Dean a soundbite during a location shoot that Dean then used in a debate.
Ocean's Twelve (2004), a sequel to Ocean's Eleven, has followed. The Good German, a romantic drama set in post-war Berlin starring Cate Blanchett and Clooney, was released in late 2006. The sixth pairing of Clooney and Soderbergh, Ocean's Thirteen, was released in June 2007.
Latest work
In 2006, Soderbergh raised eyebrows with Bubble, a $1.6 million film featuring a cast of nonprofessional actors. It opened in selected theaters and HDNet simultaneously, and four days later on DVD. Industry heads were reportedly watching how the film performed, as its unusual release schedule could have implications for future feature films.[14][15] Theater-owners, who at the time had been suffering from dropping attendance rates, did not welcome so-called "day-and-date" movies.[16] National Association of Theatre Owners president and CEO John Fithian indirectly called the film's release model "the biggest threat to the viability of the cinema industry today."[17] Soderbergh's response to such criticism: "I don't think it's going to destroy the movie-going experience any more than the ability to get takeout has destroyed the restaurant business." The film did poor business both at the box office and on the home video market.[18] Nevertheless, Soderbergh is on contract to deliver five more day-and-date movies. In fall of 2006 he contributed a mini-essay on hotel pornography, along with an accompanying series of long-exposure photographs, to Anthem magazine's November/December issue.
On May 22, 2008, Che, which may be released in theatres in two parts titled The Argentine[19] and Guerrilla,[20] was presented in the main competition of the 2008 Cannes film festival. Benicio del Toro plays Argentine guerrilla Ernesto "Che" Guevara in an epic four-hour double bill which looks first at his role in the Cuban uprising before moving to his campaign and eventual death in Bolivia.[21][22]
Soderbergh is currently working on a feature adaptation of the controversial state-of-baseball tome Moneyball which will star Brad Pitt. The book (full title: Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game), which was written by Michael Lewis, tells the story of how Billy Beane, general manager of Oakland Athletics, beat the odds, leading his team in a series of notable wins in 2002 using statistical analysis to make up for what he lacked in funds. "I want it to be really funny and entertaining, and I want you to not realize how much information is being thrown at you because you're having fun," says Soderbergh, when asked how he was going to make a film based on statistics entertaining. "We've found a couple of ideas on how to bust the form a bit, in order for all that information to reach you in a way that's a little oblique[26]."
He is developing his next directing effort, a 3-D live-action rock musical film based on Cleopatra's life, with Catherine Zeta-Jones in talks to play Cleopatra, and with music by the band Guided by Voices.[27] Soderbergh and scriptwriter Jim Greer will rewrite the lyrics of the songs to fit the story.[28]Hugh Jackman was approached to play Mark Antony but withdrew.[29] Soderbergh plans to begin filming in April 2009.[28]
Position on Possessory Credits
Soderbergh is not a fan of possessory credits, and prefers not to have his name front and center at the start of a film. "The fact that I'm not an identifiable brand is very freeing," says Soderbergh, "because people get tired of brands and they switch brands. I've never had a desire to be out in front of anything, which is why I don't take a possessory credit[30]."
Position on Piracy
On Monday, April 5th 2009, Soderbergh appeared before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives, and "cited the French initiative in asking lawmakers to deputize the American film industry to pursue copyright pirates", indicating he supports anti-piracy laws and internet regulation.[31]
Directorial style and collaborations with actors
"I've always gotten along with them," says Soderbergh of actors, "I try and make sure they're OK, and when they're in the zone, I leave them alone. I don't get in their way." His non-intrusive directorial style has attracted repeat performances by many high-profile movie stars.[32] Julia Roberts had supporting roles in Ocean's Eleven, Ocean's Twelve, and Full Frontal, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her lead in Erin Brockovich. Benicio del Toro, who also won an Academy Award for his work in a Soderbergh film (Traffic), later starred in Guerrilla and The Argentine. Catherine Zeta-Jones won a Golden Globe nomination for her portrayal of Helena in Traffic (2000) and reteamed with him for box-office hit Ocean's Twelve (2004)). They're currently working together for the musical Cleo (2010), with Zeta-Jones in the title role. Other frequent sightings in Soderbergh's filmography include character actorsLuis Guzmán (Out of Sight, The Limey, and Traffic) and Don Cheadle (Out of Sight, Traffic, Ocean's Eleven, Ocean's Twelve, and Ocean's Thirteen). But the actor who played the leading role in no fewer than six of his films is George Clooney, with whom he co-owns the film production company, Section Eight Productions. Section Eight produced the critical hits Far From Heaven, Insomnia, and Syriana as well as the Clooney-directed films Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Good Night, and Good Luck.
Soderbergh often acts as his own director of photography under the alias of Peter Andrews and occasionally as his own editor under the alias of Mary Ann Bernard. While shooting Traffic, Soderbergh wanted a credit of "Photographed and Directed by". The Writer's Guild (WGA) wouldn't allow another credit ahead of the writer. Because Soderbergh didn't want his name used more than once, he adopted a pseudonym, Peter Andrews, his father's first and middle names.
A Warner Brothers film will have Soderbergh working with Matt Damon again. A true story, The Informant, will have Matt Damon playing the role of Mark Whitacre, a corporate whistleblower. Whitacre wore a wire for two and a half years for the FBI as a high-level executive at a Fortune 500 company, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), in one of the largest price-fixing cases in history.[33] Filming is expected to commence on April 15, 2008. The script for the movie was written by Scott Z. Burns based on Kurt Eichenwald’s book, The Informant.
Production
Soderbergh often utilizes Cliff Martinez to construct/compose the soundtracks to his movies, and when not cutting his own films, he relies on editor Stephen Mirrione.
Aesthetics
Soderbergh has made big-budget Hollywood films as well as art-house independent films; works with above-the-title movie stars and unknowns; directs adaptations and original material, both of which written by himself as well as other screenwriters.[34] His versatility is also apparent with the genres which he chooses to film and his trades as a filmmaker behind the scenes. Traffic screenwriter and Syriana director Stephen Gaghan named Soderbergh "the Michael Jordan of filmmaking" for his ability to assume so many distinct roles in film production.[35]
While Soderbergh is enamoured of dialogue, Soderbergh's incorporation of score and montage are equally prevalent in his story-telling.[36] Even Soderbergh's light-hearted affairs, such as Out of Sight and Ocean's 11, contain scenes where images and score are the dominant story-telling mechanisms. Films such as Solaris and Traffic are heavily layered in scenes absent of dialogue altogether. Cliff Martinez, a frequent collaborator with Soderbergh, composes many of the scores that provide Soderbergh with the thematic and sonic landscapes into which he inserts his characters.[34]
But while Soderbergh's subject matter is highly varied, many of his films feature as a central theme the exploration of the act or moral consequences of lying. For example, the protagonists in two early films, King of the Hill and sex, lies, and videotape, are both pathological liars (one in training, one in recovery), while most of the characters in all three Oceans films are con artists. It is interesting to note that he directed Spalding Gray in Gray's Anatomy after King of the Hill, an actor who often commented that he was unable to "make anything up". Full Frontal is another film in this thread, where seemingly the fundamental dishonesty of the entire filmmaking process is exposed. More distantly, Soderbergh's interest in rhyming slang, as seen in The Limey and the Oceans films, may be seen as part of this theme, based on the conjectured origin of rhyming slang as a language game.
In his review of Full Frontal film critic Roger Ebert commented that, "Every once in a while, perhaps as an exercise in humility, Steven Soderbergh makes a truly inexplicable film... A film so amateurish that only the professionalism of some of the actors makes it watchable... It's the kind of film where you need the director telling you what he meant to do and what went wrong and how the actors screwed up and how there was no money for retakes, etc."[37] About Soderbergh's film, The Good German and his emphasis on style over substance, film critic Richard Roeper commented that the film had to offer, "a lot of style. Not so much with the plot."[38]
Soderbergh has, nonetheless, been dubbed a stylistic chameleon by Anne Thompson of Premiere Magazine. Drew Morton has extensively researched Soderbergh and has tied him to a modern movement much like the French New Wave.[39][40]
Personal life
Soderbergh is married to writer/journalist (and ex-E! Entertainment Television anchor) Jules Asner whom he often credits for influencing his female characters. Soderbergh claims he no longer reads reviews of his movies. "After Traffic I just stopped completely[41]," says the director. "After winning the LA and New York film critics awards, I really felt like, this can only get worse[42]."
