An interview that disappointed me

A few days ago I read an interview of one of my favourite directors Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Sex Lies and Videotape, Oceans 11) on Guardian.

I have been a huge fan of his ever since I watched the film Traffic, the drug war drama that won Soderbergh the best director Oscar in 2001. Since then, I went back and watched his earlier films like Sex, Lies and Videotape, The Limey and Erin Brockovich.

Soderbergh’s last work recently made the two part biopic on Che Guevara. Both the films were not as well received as it should have been. Initially, Soderbergh struggled to find financers for the films as he was not willing to make the film in English but in Spanish, for the sake of authenticity. This in turn led to the films only managing to find a limited release in US. The Academy awards completely ignored the films despite a stellar performance from Benicio Del Toro in the lead role.

Anyway, Soderbergh was about to direct a film titled Moneyball starring Brad Pitt, but rumour has it, that a last minute rewrite of the script by Soderbergh failed to impress the Sony Chief Amy Pascal. Soderbergh was unceremoniously ousted from the project a day before the filming was about to begin.

In this interview here, Soderbergh sounds very upset, kind of defeated and he even goes on to say that he doesn’t see a very long future for himself in the industry.

As an ardent fan of Soderbergh, it definitely upset me to see him so dejected and alienated. Hollywood would surely miss one of its most talented directors of the last decade if he leaves.