….and hiatus over. It’s safe to say that Steven Soderbergh has pretty much done it all in the cinema world (except make a western, which he has said is not a genre he’s a particular enthusiast for) and has grown a bit weary of storytelling in that format. He’s been there, done that, won a Palme d’Or and an Oscar, so now it’s time to conquer a new medium, so how about television? Okay, he went down that road a bit with the short lived “K Street” in 2003, but the industry has changed massively in the ensuing decade. Now, Soderbergh is getting back behind the camera.
He’ll be taking on “The Knick” over at Cinemax, a ten-episode series (which he’ll helm every episode of — take that David Fincher!) set to star Clive Owen. Sweet fancy moses. Sounding like an old-timey “E.R.,” the show is set in 1900s New York City and will center around the Knickerbocker Hospital, and surgeons, nurses and staff who did some amazing work without the techniques of modern medicine available at their disposable. This sounds pretty rad, and it’s certainly a particular milieu Soderbergh hasn’t tackled before.
We reckon this means his ambitious 12-hour TV take on John Barth‘s “The Sot-Weed Factor” is on hold for now, but Soderbergh is just gonna keep swimming, you’ll just have to see where he goes. Speaking of which, the ever-busy director has fully launched Extension 765, where you can buy original art, t-shirts and more from him. No, really. It’s another interesting venture from a man who continues to refuse to be defined within any specific boundaries. [Deadline]