He originally wanted Nicolas Winding Refn to direct, but since that ship has sailed, Channing Tatum has teamed with Steven Soderbergh on a personal story that draws from Tatum’s past as a male stripper. I have the perfect screenwriter for it: Diablo Cody.
Easy jokes aside, Soderbergh is a chameleon director with ups and downs like just about anyone, but if he can get a decent performance out of Tatum, it’ll be a win. According to The Playlist, Magic Mike will focus on Tatum as a mentor figure for a young male stripper learning the ropes and the pole. They have poles in male stripping, right?
Soderbergh is insanely busy, so they’ll have to grease this one up and shove it into an alread-hectic schedule that acts as an explosive amount of output before Soderbergh’s retirement next summer. His final film is set to be Liberace, which seems like an obvious double feature with Magic Mike. There are a lot of jokes here, but in all honesty, it’s refreshing to see an actor draw on this sort of previous experience in order to make something. In a world where everything (including sordid pasts) are photoshopped, it’s daring for an actor on the rise to be this open about the fact that he used to swing a banana hammock for cash. If that isn’t self-awareness and acceptance, I don’t know what is, and that alone could set a strong base for a good drama.
Related Topics: Channing Tatum, Drama
