Steven Soderbergh Page 3

Robert Downey Jr, the star of The Avengers and Iron Man 3 - two of the biggest grossing movies in history, has been named Forbes' highest paid actor on the planet with annual estimated earnings of $75 million.

The 48-year-old - who's enjoyed somewhat of a career resurgence over the past decade thanks to Marvel's big-budget blockbusters - pulled in more than $1 billion at the box-office.

Though Downey Jr is the predictable No.1, perhaps most surprising is the entry of Channing Tatum in second place on this year's list. The new father who both financed and starred in Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike, made around $60 million.

Continue reading: Meet Robert Downey Jr, Forbes' Highest Paid Actor In The World

Side Effects was supposed to be Steven Soderbergh’s last film, but the sequence of events that led it from being a TV movie to a fully fledged feature conspired in the director’s favor, as Behind The Candelabra is much better way to say goodbye.

The critics have well and truly fallen in love with Soderbergh’s depiction of Liberace in Behind The Candelabra. “Buffed to a typical HBO high gloss, Candelabra is a visual feast,” say USA Today. “It shines brightest in those moments where it captures the rhythms of a relationship in its first blush of affection and its seemingly inevitable collapse.” This never happens, but if you peruse the reviews of this film on Rotten Tomatoes, you won’t see a green splat; just shiny red tomatoes. With 93%, this film is certified fresh. “Who'd have thought Michael Douglas and Matt Damon would make such an astonishing, convincing on-screen couple? Steven Soderbergh, that's who...” say Empire Magazine. “If showbusiness is the business of showing off, nobody did it better than Liberace,” comment the Financial Times.

Continue reading: Behind The Candelabra Reviews – Critics Fall In Love With Liberace Soderbergh’s Swansong

Liberace biopic, Behind The Candelabra, has been released today in UK cinemas today but due to troubles securing big-buck Hollywood funding, the glitteringly kitsch film will only be seen on TV in the US, making it exempt from Oscar considerations.

In unfortunate circumstances for all who worked hard to create the well-received, feature-length biopic, Behind The Candelabra, its broadcast on US TV, instead of screening in cinemas, will mean that the film starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon cannot win the most illustrious award in filmmaking. No matter how many scores of critics proclaim their adoration; regardless of how many fans flock in their droves to the cinema here in the U.K, the film will never even have a shot at the Oscars.

According to director Steven Soderbergh, Behind The Candelabra was denied any financing from Hollywood studios because of their belief that only gay people would want to go and see the film. Soderbergh failed to let Hollywood's knockback deflate his big plans to bring Liberace back to life, finding funding instead from HBO, the American cable television network, who will broadcast the biopic on the small screen. Soderbergh said he and his team saw the bright side: "Our attitude was: 'More people are going to see it this way anyway.'"

Continue reading: Behind The Candelabra: Denied An Oscar, Liberace Biopic Ignites Critics' Passion

The nature of Michael Douglas' cancer remarks have been cleared up by his spokesperson Allen Burry, though the Guardian newspaper is sticking by its story. On Monday 3 June, the newspaper published an interview with Douglas - the star of Steven Soderbergh's Behind The Candelabra - in which he spoke about his cancer diagnosis and subsequent recovery.

According to the published interview, Douglas appeared to suggest his throat cancer was caused by oral sex and not from years of drinking and smoking. "No. No. Ah, without getting too specific, this particular cancer is caused by something called HPV, which actually comes about from cunnilingus," the actor was quoted as saying. Various medical professional refuted the claims before Allen Burry denied that Douglas said that oral sex was the cause of the cancer and claimed he was merely pointing out one of the many causes of oral cancer. "In a discussion with the newspaper," the Associated Press quotes Burry as saying, "they talked about the causes of oral cancer, one of which was oral sex, which is noted and has been known for a while now."

The Guardian refutes any charge of misrepresentation and claims "Mr Burry was not present at the Guardian's interview with Michael Douglas," adding, "the only two people present were Mr Douglas and the Guardian writer, Xan Brooks." The newspaper also posted the relevant audio file of the interview, along with a verbatim transcript of the interview. Over to you, Mr Douglas.

Continue reading: Michael Douglas Cancer Remarks Denied, Newspaper Provides Audio [Listen]

Michael Douglas, the legendary American actor and star of Steven Soderbergh's new movie Behind The Candelabra, claims he got throat cancer through oral sex. When asked whether he regrets his years of heavy drinking and smoking - the usual causes of cancer - Douglas told the Guardian, "No. Because without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by HPV [human papillomavirus], which actually comes about from cunnilingus." Err, ok.

Bizarrely, the Oscar winner, who is married to Catherine Zeta-Jones, went on to claim that oral sex was also the best cure for it, "I did worry if the stress caused by my son's incarceration didn't help trigger it. But yeah, it's a sexually transmitted disease that causes cancer. And if you have it, cunnilingus is also the best cure for it." Celebrity GP Dr Drew Pinsky praised the actor for the interview, tweeting, "Very courageous, will help reduce the risk for others," though other professionals remained sceptical. Mahesh Kumar, a London-based head and neck surgeon, said, "It has been established beyond reasonable doubt that the HPV type 16 is the causative agent in oropharyngeal cancer. Maybe he thinks that more exposure to the virus will boost his immune system. But medically, that just doesn't make sense."

Douglas' representative denied that the actor made a specific link between cancer and oral sex, saying, "He did not say this was the cause of his cancer. In a discussion of oral cancer, he said this is one of the suspected causes. He never made it personal."

Continue reading: Michael Douglas Says He Got Throat Cancer From Oral Sex, Doctors Say He Didn't

The big global release this week is The Hangover Part III, and the cast has been jetting around the world for premieres in Los Angeles and London, where fans screamed at actors Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms and Ken Jeong as they paraded up the red carpet. The critical response hasn't been quite as positive.

The 66th Cannes Film Festival winds down this weekend in France. Critics are praising new films by Steven Soderbergh (Behind the Candelabra starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon), Alexander Payne (Nebraska with Bruce Dern) and the Coen Brothers (Inside Llewyn Davis with break-out actor Oscar Isaac). They weren't so thrilled by Ryan Gosling's reunion with Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn for Only God Forgives, although they praised costar Kristin Scott Thomas for going far against type.

Continue reading: A Week In Movies: The Hangover Saga Ends, The Hunger Games Cast Talk Catching Fire And Jennifer Aniston Plays A Stripper

Steven Soderbergh's Side Effects was supposed to be the inconstant director’s last film, but he’ll want Behind the Candelabra his biopic of the pianist and composer Liberace to be remembered as his last work. The film - starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon – has been excellently received after its Cannes Film Festival debut.

“The film is mesmeric, riskily incorrect, outrageously watchable and simply outrageous,” says The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw in his 4-star review. “Unlike ITV's Vicious, which stars two famously gay actors, Behind the Candelabra does not offer any extra-textual liberal assurances in its casting.” The Telegraph were even more impressed, awarding the film a five-star rating. “Soderbergh’s exceptional film, which screened in competition at the Cannes Festival on Tuesday morning, is adapted from a book written by Thorson, who worked for five years as Liberace’s live-in companion,” they write. “During that time, Liberace moulded him – sometimes medically, with the help of plastic surgery and diet pills – into his younger, sexually idealised doppelgänger."

Continue reading: Behind The Candelabra At Cannes 2013 – First Impressions

What it's like to sit on the jury at the Cannes Film Festival and have the power to present the director of the very best movie with the prestigious Palme d'Or? This year, Steven Spielberg, Ang Lee, Nicole Kidman and Christoph Waltz bring a touch of Hollywood A-list glamor to the event and will spent 10 days in darkened screening rooms debating each of the movies in competition.

British director Stephen Fears headed the jury in 2007, when he and his team chose Romanian movie 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days as the Palme d'Or winner ahead of the Coen's No Country For Old Men, David Fincher's Zodiac, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof. "They were very anti-American, the jury. But I kept saying that American films are watched all over the world. This cut no ice with a few bolshy women on the jury," Frears told the BBC ahead of the Festival this week, "I don't know, you try and behave sensibly. I hear all those stories about people manipulating things, but there didn't seem to be any of that. There were no orders from above - nobody tried to interfere, but there were a few basic rules which you had to follow," he added.

Sitting in a darkened room and watching the very best movies of the year before anyone else sounds pretty fantastic right? "...you're terrified of is going to sleep," said Frears, "...so I had coffee brought to me to stay awake - it was manageable. I didn't write notes but I had a friend with me and she and I would discuss the film afterwards." On whether he still recognised that he had chosen the best movie in competition, Frears was unequivocal, saying, "Oh yes, it was a wonderful, original film. I'm sure it benefitted from winning, it was a very accessible film. I'm sure if you spoke to distributors, I'm sure they would say Michael Haneke's film [2012 Palme d'Or and Oscar-winner] Amour has done really well."

Continue reading: Dark Rooms, Bans And Bolshy Women: How The Cannes Jury Choose The Palme D'Or Winner

Steven Soderbergh has made no secret of the fact he is taking an indefinite break from the movie business to focus on his painting, though his parting gift - provocative thriller 'Side Effects' - may well be considered one of Hollywood's finest swansongs. The movie stars Rooney Mara and Channing Tatum as a successful New York couple whose world unravels when a new drug prescribed by Emily's psychiatrist (Jude Law) intended to treat anxiety has unexpected side effects.

The notoriously hard-to-please Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw gave the movie a wildly positive review, writing, "What a gripping and disturbing thriller this is. Surely it can't be Soderbergh's last movie. Say it ain't so." It's certainly a shame to be losing Soderbergh, an accomplished filmmaker best known for Erin Brockovich, Traffic, Ocean's Eleven, Sex, Lies, and Videotape and Contagion. On the eve of its UK release, Ben Walters of Time Out magazine talked up Side Effects, writing, "As a thriller in the Hitchcock mould, 'Side Effects' is great fun: its characters are well acted without being entirely likeable, which makes their jeopardy all the more enjoyable while putting us at a clinical remove." Ian Freer of Empire Magazine was another to mourn the loss of Soderbergh from the movie world, writing, "We may lose Soderbergh to painting, theatre and HBO-fuelled TV, and that's a crying shame. If that's the case, Side Effects is a great note on which to go out."

As Freer notes, the director's departure shouldn't take the emphasis away from a great movie, featuring strong performances from Hollywood's rising stars Tatum and Mara, and the now-veteran Jude Law. 

Continue reading: Why Steven Soderbergh's Final Movie 'Side Effects' Could Well Be His Best

Steven Soderbergh’s Side Effects didn’t fair quite as well as hoped on its opening weekend on the US Box office charts, opening with $2.8 million takings on a weather-hit chart to languish behind critically derided Identity Thief, which took $11.2 million.

However, with the US done and dusted, the attentions of Soderbergh move towards Europe, with the film currently playing at the Berlin Film Festival ahead of large scale European release – including the UK on March 8 – from February 22 onwards. So far it’s received cautious critical appraisal from European critics, with The Independent cryptically offering “if audiences stop trying to unravel the very tangled plot and don’t mind have the carpet pulled from under their feet again and again, they should find plenty here to relish.” That suggests another Soderbergh brain-twister, and indeed it seems to be the case, given that the film is about the Rooney Mara-playing Emily Taylor, who takes a prescribed experimental drug, causing all manner of mental twists and turns. Jude Law plays Jonathan, her psychiatrist whose life is gradually falling apart, whilst Catherine Zeta-Jones and Channing Tatum also star.

The Telegraph were far more impressed than The Independent after coming away from Berlin.“When all’s said and done, it’ll go down as minor Soderbergh – clever sleight-of-hand, really – but it reminds you of so many Soderberghy virtues as to be an oddly compendious pleasure.” It’s said that this might be Soderbergh’s last film, it could well be that he’ll be going out on a high yet.

Continue reading: Soderbergh's Side Effects Bounces Back From Box Office Disappointment To Leave Berlin Film Festival Purring

Melissa McCarthy's latest comedy caper Identity Thief defied poor reviews and blizzard conditions to top the US box office with rather huge takings of $36.6 million during its opening weekend. The movie, about a mild-mannered businessman who travels to Miami to confront a woman who has stolen his identity, is officially the biggest release of the year.

The result seems strange given the bad weather in the US and the fact that Identity Thief is one of the worst reviewed movies of McCarthy's career. Andrew O'Hehir of Salon.com said, "Considering that it starts out with two distinctive and likable stars and a reasonably promising premise, "Identity Thief" reaches impressive heights of laziness and idiocy." Last week's top movie, the zombie comedy Warm Bodies, fell to number two with $11.5 million takings, while Steven Soderberg's Side Effects - one of the best reviewed movies of the director's career - took $10 million to finish third. Ticket sales were 45 per cent lower than the same three-day period last year, with most of the north-east coast of America buried in heavy snow. "It took such a chunk out of the business. But we can't control Mother Nature," said Nikki Rocco, Universal's head of distribution. Rocco suggested 'Identity Thief' would have taken $40 million if it weren't for the weather.

Rounding out the top five was Jennifer Lawrence's Silver Linings Playbook - which is expected to perform well at the Oscars next month - and Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. 

Continue reading: Box Office Roundup: How 'Identity Thief' Became The Biggest Movie Of 2013

Steven Soderbergh’s Side Effects stars Channing Tatum and Rooney Mara and is another fine example of Soderbergh’s masterful storytelling. Fans of Soderbergh will do well to relish this one as it may be his last. The director has said that he’s tired of making films now and may well make Side Effects his last effort. The movies has garnered a slew of great reviews and could well out to be the most respected role that Channing Tatum has been attached to, for quite some time.

Side Effects is a thriller, telling the tale of a suicidal wife, a husband just out of jail, an under-pressure psychiatrist and the troubles with personality-suppressing drugs. Performances from Catherine Zeta Jones and Jude Law supplement those of the central characters. As is typical with Soderbergh’s movies (Traffic, A Scanner Darkly), the plot is many-faceted and eventually, the dramatic potential of the movie explodes. Kenneth Turan, writing for Los Angeles Times explains “It would ruin the fun to detail exactly what kind of hell, but rest assured this top-notch cast has great fun working out all the fiendish ramifications of this potboiler plot. If this does prove to be Soderbergh's final film — and I wouldn't hold my breath — he picked a heck of a one to go out on.

The movie has racked up a highly respectable score of 82% on Rotten Tomatoes – usually a decent indicator of how a film will fare. Side Effects is in US movie theaters this weekend.

Continue reading: If Soderbergh's Bowing Out With 'Side Effects,' It's An Impressive Swansong

Steven Soderberg's psychological thriller Side Effects - his final movie before retiring from movie directing - is winning high praise from critics. The movie - boasting an all-star cast including Jude Law, Channing Tatum, Rooney Mara and Catherine Zeta-Jones - follows a successful New York couple whose world unravels when a new drug prescribed by Emily's psychiatrist has unexpected side effects. Ok, so it might sound a little bit too much like Soderbergh's 2011 thriller Contagion, but give it chance.

The general consensus amongst critics is that Side Effects is a little silly in places, though great fun, with dashes of genius. A.O Scott of the New York Times said, "While the plot may be predictable (and more than a little preposterous) in retrospect, Mr. Soderbergh handles it brilliantly, serving notice once again that he is a crackerjack genre technician." Roger Ebert paid homage to the director, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, "Soderbergh came, he saw, he conquered, and now he's moving on." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone continued the high praise, writing, "Side Effects is a hell of a thriller, twisty, terrific and packed with surprises you don't see coming," while other critics praised Soderbergh's slick filmmaking and storytelling techniques. All-in-all, it's pretty good news for the director on his final outing. 

The film's screenwriter Scott Z. Burns spoke to the Huffington Post of Soderbergh's decision to leave Hollywood behind and concentrate on his painting.  "It's a little bit heartbreaking, for all sorts of selfish reasons.If he doesn't come back, it'll be because the other things are so rewarding for him that he doesn't need to come back," he said.

Continue reading: Steven Soderbergh Signs Off With 'Side Effects': But Does It Hit The Spot?

You’d think that in a season when we’ve seen a spaghetti western about slavery, a film about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, featuring graphic torture scenes, a fantasy adaptation and a musical adaptation, nothing would be too outlandish for Hollywood to handle. Not so apparently.

After a season full of violence and shock, one topic remains too taboo for the business - beware the gays. According to Indiewire, Steven Soderbergh’s new flick, Behind the Candelabra was “too gay” to produce. Speaking to the Television Production Association, Soderbergh revealed how much of a struggle it had been to find a home for his film, despite having two big names already on the project – Michael Douglas and Matt Damon. "Nobody would make it. We went to everybody in town," Soderbergh said to The Wrap. “We needed $5 million. Nobody would do it.”

The film tracks the tragic relationship between Liberace (portrayed by Douglas) and his lover Scott Thompson (played by Matt Damon). Even so, the film is much more lighthearted than something like Brokeback Mountain, for example. So it was a shock for Soderbergh that he could not find the funding anywhere. It all ends well, though, as the film eventually found a home with HBO. According to the director, it’s for the better, since the company knows how to sell something like this. Behind the Candelabra is set to come out sometime in March.