Speaking at the Venice Film Festival, where his latest film Contagion is featured in competition for the Golden Lion, Oscar-winning director, Steven Soderbergh, dismissed reports that he is retiring from film-making.
“It’s less dramatic than it sounds – it’s just a sabbatical,” the Ocean 11 director said.
In the last couple of years, Soderbergh has repeatedly hinted in interviews with the media that he was going to retire from film making in order to pursue his other passion, Painting.
Speaking from his Manhattan painting studio, the 48-year-old director told the New York times last year: “I’m interested in exploring another art form while I have the time and ability to do so. I’ll be the first person to say, If I can’t be any good at it and run out of money, I’ll be back making another Ocean’s movie.”
But in ensuing interviews with the Observer and BBC Radio 4, he softened his statement, suggesting that he was merely taking a break. “I feel I need to recalibrate, so I can discover something new.”
In 1989, the 26-year-old Soderbergh stormed into the film business with his first feature film “Sex, Lies, and Videotape,” winning Sundance Film Festival and becoming the youngest director to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. A few years later, he was nominated for Oscar for directing “Traffic” and “Erin Brockovich.”
Soderbrgh’s latest movie Contagion, starring Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet and Jude Law, traces a virus that causes a global pandemic.
Recently, he has also completed another action thriller, Haywire, with Antonio Banderas and Michael Fassbender.
Irrespective of whether Soderbergh quits or takes a break, he has at least three movies to complete: Liberace, with Michael Douglas and Matt Damon; The Man from U.N.C.L.E with George Clooney and Magic Mike with Channing Tatum.