The recurring Film Twitter joke that made the rounds when quarantine first started, was uber-prolific filmmaker Steven Soderbergh (the ‘Oceans,’ trilogy “Out Of Sight”) had likely already made a few films in the weeks that had passed. And that’s basically turned out to be correct. On Flaviar’s interactive livestream show, The Nightcap live. hosted by Dan Dunn for spirit lovers—Soderbergh owns the tasty spirits company Singani63—, the filmmaker with no off switch has confirmed, that self-isolation does not mean an end to creativity.
READ MORE: Steven Soderbergh Plots Crime Thriller ‘Kill Switch’ With Don Cheadle & Sebastian Stan
Describing the importance of storytelling as a fundamental human need, the hope it provides, and how “stories keep us going and keep us believing in tomorrow,” Soderbergh revealed he’s never been more productive.
“During the lockdown, I’ve done more sustained writing I’ve done than since the summer of 1985,” he said. “I never considered myself a writer, I wrote as a way to get into the business because nobody can stop you from sitting down in front of a keyboard and writing.”
Those three screenplays? He describes them as an original, an adaptation and casually, you know, just a little sequel to his Palme d’Or winning breakthrough 1989 film “Sex, Lies & Videotape.”
“When the lockdown happened here in New York, in order to stay organized and stay sane, I decided I’m going to write,” he explained. “I’ve gotta go back to writing, so within the first six or seven weeks of the lockdown, I finished three different screenplays. One of them was a rewrite, one of them was an original, and one of them was an adaptation of a novel I’ve been wanting to do.”
“The original a sequel to ‘Sex, Lies & Videotape,’” he continued. “It was an idea that had been circling for a while and I felt like I came up with a way to get back into [the story] and so, I wrote it and I wanna make it.”
Well, alright then. Next up, is an adaptation of “City Of The Sun,” a crime/suspense novel by David Levien, one half of the writing duo Brian Koppelman and David Levien, the creators and showrunners of Showtime’s “Billions,” and writers of “Rounders” and Soderbergh’s “Ocean’s 13” and “The Girlfriend Experience.”
The book, the first of a series of four novels that centers on a private detective who once served as a police officer, focuses on the abduction of a young boy, his father’s search for him, and the detective who reluctantly accepts the case.
READ MORE: Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Contagion’ Is Especially Sobering In Light Of Current Events
“I asked David some years ago if I could adapt the first of the four novels that he wrote, ‘City of the Sun,’ and he said sure and I started it and then stopped,” he said. “And during the lockdown, I started over again and finished it, so we’ll see what happens now. It’s a great book, it’s a great character. I’m happy I’ve been able to push it downfield a little bit.”
There’s more, as Soderbergh was on a real roll. What happened to “Kill Switch,” the period crime film set in 1955 written by Ed Solomon (“Bill And Ted’s Big Adventure”)? Well, it was two weeks from shooting in Detroit when COVID-19 hit and production shut down.
We’ve known that Don Cheadle, Sebastian Stan, and Jon Hamm were set to star in the crime drama, but there’s more. Benicio del Toro, rumored, has been confirmed, plus Ray Liotta, Amy Seimetz, Frankie Shaw, and George Clooney, a longtime member of Soderbergh’s troupe who hasn’t appeared in one of his movies since 2007’s “Ocean’s 13.”
“I’m missing a lot of people who will be angry,” the director said of the additional cast name he forgot to mention in the moment, “But the point is, we were two weeks out when we got shut down. We shot ‘Out of Sight’ in Detroit with Don [Cheadle] and George [Clooney] and I was really excited about coming back. We are gonna come back, we’re just gotta figure out when.”
Speaking of ‘Bill and Ted,’ Soderbergh, who produced the upcoming ‘Bill & Ted 3,’ says he’s seen it, it’s really good and, “it’s the perfect movie for people who wanna feel better about what’s happening right now.” The tricky part, that he eludes to and clearly isn’t figured out yet is whether it’ll be released in theaters or streaming, but that thought ended on an ellipsis.
Finally, he called, “Galaxy Quest,” directed by ‘Bill & Ted 3’ filmmaker, Dean Parisot, “a masterpiece,” and hell, who can argue with that (oh, yes, and he’s also directed these “Stir Crazy” interview shorts, one of which you can watch below, but who’s really keeping score at this point?)