Yes, “Magic Mike 2” is still happening, but there are a lot of things that need to be finalized before Channing Tatum and co. take it off and get it on again. Ever since news of the followup surfaced, we’ve learned that it will be a road movie, it will reunite all the characters from the first film, and Tatum himself might direct. However, he’s also long-maintained that he’s rightfully wary making his first movie in the shadow of Steven Soderbergh, and he might want to get his feet wet on another movie first, if he were to direct “Magic Mike 2.” However, an interesting carrot is being dangled by none other than Soderbergh himself.
“…… either [my producing partner] Reid Carolin and I will direct it together, or we’ll have Greg Jacobs direct. He worked as a producer on the [2012] movie and has been Steven’s right-hand man for almost 25 movies,” Tatum told THR. “Right now, we’re just trying to clean up the story, and then we’ll make a decision. But it is hard for me and Reid to direct after one of the greatest directors of our time. Steven has argued . He has said he would shoot it; he would DP it.”
So, no-brainer right? Well, not exactly, and Tatum uses a pretty excellent metaphor to get his point across. “And there’s another thing: Is that good? Because he is such an opinionated and talented man, if he wants to do a five-minute tracking shot through a forest, you don’t want to doubt him,” he said. “It would be like having sex with your girlfriend while her porn-star ex-boyfriend is in the room watching you.” Indeed.
However, the approach would be something less Soderbergh-esque, and perhaps more in line with audiences who wanted to rip their panties off and throw it at the screen, rather than the character study/economy drama that unfolded for a large part of “Magic Mike.” “It will be a road-trip movie, and it will essentially be the movie that everyone thought the first one was going to be: crazy and fun and less slice-of-life and less drama,” Tatum shared. “The first one, we had to make not so cheesy and campy; this one we are going to swing for the fences.”
We’re not so sure we need a full blown camp version of “Magic Mike” — the first movie sold those moments well enough, and they are perfect in that context. Extended for the running time of an entire movie? If handled wrong, it could be like that “Zoolander” gas station scene…
Either way, it looks like they are taking their time in making any decisions, which is the smart way to go. And be sure to read the rest of the interview, wherein Tatum (sort of) reveals one of his heroes is Genghis Khan…really….