Filmmaker Steven Soderbergh to retire
Posted March 15, 2011 10:36 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Soderbergh says he’s ready to retire.
The 48-year-old director of Traffic, Erin Brockovich, and Ocean’s Eleven told Studio 360 radio host Kurt Andersen he plans to leave the business after shooting his next two movies.
“When you reach the point where you’re like, ‘If I have to get into a van to do another scout I’m just going to shoot myself,’ it’s time to let somebody else, who’s still excited about getting in the van, get in the van,” Soderbergh said in an interview aired Friday.
“It’s just time. For the last three years, I’ve been turning down everything that comes my way. So, you’re not going to have Steven Soderbergh to kick around anymore.”
At the 1989 Cannes Film Festival, Soderbergh, then 26, became the youngest winner of the Palme d’Or for his feature film debut, sex, lies and videotape.
The prolific director has swung from critical and commercial successes like Out of Sight to such experimental flops as Solaris, adapted from a philosophical sci-fi short story.
Soderbergh has two more films to shoot before he quits: Liberace, starring Matt Damon and Michael Douglas, and Man From U.N.C.L.E., starring George Clooney.
