We’re all probably up to speed with Steven Soderbergh’s latest left turn, yes? It’s an action spy thriller starring American mixed martial arts champion Gina Carano and it’s set to shoot in January.
It’s been called everything from a mix of James Bond films to “La Femme Nikita,” John Boorman’s more abstract crime thriller, “Point Blank,” and of course, the ‘Bourne’ franchise.
But is some recent comments Soderbergh made to MTV, the always candid director says he’ll be deviating from the ‘Bourne’ path, for one, because he’s not big on stylistic regurgitation, but also, simply because his smaller budget won’t allow for it.
“I have to go in another direction. I have to think laterally instead of vertically because I don’t have the budget. I’m not going to have scenes with so much mayhem taking place that in reality the cops would shut it down…. So stylistically I don’t want to duplicate what Paul’s been doing. The camera won’t be on the shoulder. It’ll be my take.”
Similar to “La Femme Nikita,”(still an ’80s French classic) the story finds Carano as a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who is given a second chance to use her skills for constructive purposes for the government (though some loglines have said, it’s a case of mistaken identity, maybe some signals have been crossed or perhaps the story’s just been update as it just started being written a few weeks ago).
The original report said the film would be a globe-trotter with locations in Ireland and Turkey, but Soderbergh tells MTV he hasn’t decided on his locals yet (and if budget is such a concern, he might have to scale back).
Name actors are expected to be announced in the supporting cast. “I want to cast people around her that make the audience comfortable. She’s an unknown quantity to the audience as a movie actor, so I need a couple people around her so when people see the poster they go, ‘Oh it’s a real movie.’ “
Those fearing “Bubble” or something very Magnolia-like and lo-fi don’t have to worry.
