Indefatigable multi-tasker Steven Soderbergh is always working on half a dozen projects at once.
Currently, his next project is the spy action movie, tentatively titled “Knockout” for now
(that script by Lem Dobbs is finished and has been turned in, btw, that title will likely change) and he’s in the middle of pre-production while simultaneously doing rehearsals in Sydney, Australia for his play “Tot Mom.”
“Knockout” — which will also feature a score by David Holmes — will shoot February 1 in Ireland we’re told, however, nothing like taking some time out to work two projects ahead, right? If all goes according to plan, “Liberace” with Matt Damon and Michael Douglas shoots and the 3D rock musical, “Cleo” is after that (early 2012? the music is being composed by booze-sozzled indie-rockers Guided By Voices don’t forget).
And in his “down time” Soderbergh is apparently already doing visual reference for “Cleo” and looking at the wild and manically campy work of British director Ken Russell. Russell is of course known for two of the more infamous musicals of all time, The Who’s “Tommy,” and 1975’s hilariously odd, “Lisztomania” another starring feature film for Roger Daltrey featuring an awesomely kinda wrong score by prog-rocker Rick Wakeman of Yes (he’s also known for his freaky sci-fi horror 1980 film, “Altered States” starring William Hurt and scripted by the great Paddy Chayefsky).
So it sounds like Sodbergh is going for that madcap vibe. “It’s going to have a real psychedelic late 1960s aesthetic,” he tells the UK MetroMix. “I think any filmmaker who is interested in the camera wants to make a musical,” he said defending the often wrongly maligned and misunderstood genre.
While it remains to be seen if “Cleo” will be as nutty as Russell’s film (or as controversial, or nudity-obsessed), he does add, “I actually like ‘Ocean’s Twelve’ most of all,” which is widely recognized as the goofiest of all that series (honestly we haven’t seen it since it came out, but it had its charms then and we’ve been meaning to revisit).
Sodbergh’s latest, “The Informant” comes out in the U.K. on Friday. BTW, yet another project? We’re told his Spalding Grey documentary is going to premiere at Slamdance in January. Here’s a trailer for “Lisztomania” (which is still not available on DVD, btw) and the one for “Tommy.”
A reader aptly points out, we forgot the Russell’s 1971 musical, “The Boyfriend” starring Twiggy and Christopher Gable which is essentially a loopy take on and satire of stage musicals of the ’20s and ’30s. The film did so poorly in the U.S. at the time, it is essentially forgotten and no studio has ever bothered to put it out on DVD stateside.
