Rebecca S., Here…

You thought director Steven Soderbergh was retired, right? Wrong. Soderbergh is definitely not budging on his retirement from directing, even when it comes to the follow up of his film Magic Mike. The sequel, rumored to be titled Magic Mike XXL, is already slated for next summer. Channing Tatum is hoping that the entire cast will return to be directed by his production partner Gregory Jacobs. However, Soderberg will return to duties as cinematographer, director of photography, camera operator, and editor. That’s quite a bit of work.

Soderbergh states that “I want to be there, but I don’t want to be the director,” Soderbergh explains. “I want to be a part of it. I want to be in the band, but I just don’t want to be the frontman this time.” Tatum says he tried hard to convince Soderbergh not to retire: “It’s super complicated, in my opinion, why he wanted to stop doing film. I lobbied probably harder than anybody else—we had many, many nights of heated debate. I was, ‘I don’t fucking get it! Why?’ And he’s like, ‘I don’t need it.’”

Here’s hoping he enjoys his time off.