Steven Soderbergh

i swear by my pretty floral bonnet i will end you

Hollywood Chooses Newbie Action Star Gina Carano To Headline Female Expendables Film

by Jill Pantozzi | 11:05 am, September 25th, 2012

In a surprising announcement, the folks making that Expendables-inspired action film starring women instead of men, have chosen Haywire star and former MMA fighter, Gina Carano to lead the cast. Interesting.

Male Actors of Magic Mike Struggle With Objectification, Personal Appearance, and Body Hair

by Susana Polo | 3:45 pm, June 28th, 2012

Magic Mike is not a movie that’s been pinging very loudly on my radar, and so it wasn’t really until today that I figured out what it’s all about: Channing Tatum as a veteran male stripper tutoring a younger guy (while dating said young guy’s sister) and deciding that though the work certainly gives him an ego boost he no longer finds it very fulfilling to be appreciated for his physical qualities: it hard to find his own self worth off the stage.

And that’s pretty interesting, as we don’t get a lot of serious depictions in our media of male characters who have made careers out of their looks alone, much less time spent on the personal struggles such a character might have with being in that position, like having to be encouraged by a female significant other (often it’s the other way around) to remember that they have other qualities that they could build a life on. (In the titular Mike’s case, he makes custom furniture). The loose woman who’s shown to be incomplete emotionally because she encourages men to objectify her and must be rescued by a loving man is a practically ancient story. According to director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Reid Carolin, that sort of gender flip was what interested them in making the movie in the first place, and between them and Matthew McConaughey, Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, Joe Manganiello and Matt Bomer, who play the movie’s male stripper characters, that process has been kind of revelatory.

Gina Carano Kicked A Lot of Butts For Haywire

by Susana Polo | 2:49 pm, January 26th, 2012

Despite favorable reviews, the homage to 70′s spy films peppered with more modern, brutal fight sequences Haywire hasn’t exactly been raking in the box office funds. I admit myself to being skeptical of it at first: the fact that the trailers reveal no female characters other than Gina Carano‘s Mallory made it seem a bit “we stuck a lady in!” gimmicky instead of an general on putting women in well-rounded roles (whether the hero or not) in action movies. Now, I’m usually in favor of such kinds of gimmickry when it comes from the right motivation, and director Steven Soderbergh maintains that it does. His whole motivation for Haywire was the question “Why are we only making starring female action heroes if Angelina Jolie is involved?”

Could Haywire Star (and Former MMA Fighter) Gina Carano Play Wonder Woman?

by Jamie Frevele | 1:59 pm, January 20th, 2012

Time for your unsubstantiated “Wonder Woman movie” rumor of the day: Gina Carano, the MMA fighter who is getting excellent buzz for her first starring role in Steven Soderbergh‘s Haywire, has said that she would love to play Wonder Woman if they made a movie about her — and she’s not the only one who would like to see her in such a role. That might be really awesome, but is this movie even happening? (Um, can it now?)