Although it didn't last all that long in the grand scheme of things, Steven Soderbergh did in fact retire from directing feature-films after the release of BEHIND THE CANDELABRA in 2013. Soderbergh certainly didn't stay dormant during this period and, among other things, directed all twenty episodes of Cinemax's The Knick. However, the call of tackling a big-screen project beckoned once more when he was given the script for what would become LOGAN LUCKY. The upcoming heist film centers around two brothers, played by Channing Tatum and Adam Driver, who set out to rob the Charlotte Motor Speedway just before the biggest race of the year, the Coca-Cola 600.
The director spoke with Entertainment Weekly about the film and admitted that he took the gig because he couldn't bear the thought of someone else getting to do it.
I was given the script through a friend and asked if I would recommend some possible directors. Not unlike Bud Selig when he was charged with finding a commissioner for Major League Baseball, I thought that I was the right person to direct this film, and the search was stopping. I really couldn’t bear the thought of somebody else getting to do it. Now, that happened to coincide with some ideas that I’d had regarding distribution, and the timing seemed right. It was a movie that I very much wanted to make and also the opportunity to experiment with this new model was becoming possible, so I decided to pull the trigger.
Steven Soderbergh also revealed why Rebecca Blunt’s script for LOGAN LUCKY jumped out at him, saying that it's an "anti-glam version of an Ocean's movie."
Nobody dresses nice. Nobody has nice stuff. They have no money. They have no technology. It’s all rubber band technology, and that’s what I thought was fun about it. It seemed familiar to me, but different enough. The landscape, the characters, and the canvass were the complete opposite of an Ocean’s film. What was weird is that I was working as a producer on Ocean’s Eight while we were shooting Logan, and it was kind of head-spinning. That’s like a proper Ocean’s film. This is a version of an Ocean’s movie that’s up on cement blocks in your front yard.
His time away from the world of features certainly didn't diminish Steven Soderbergh's ability to craft big-screen movies, in fact, the director feels as though LOGAN LUCKY benefited from the intense workload he experienced while making The Knick for Cinemax. "The Knick was like CrossFit for directing," said Soderbergh. "I felt like I was in really good shape when I came out the other end of it. In many ways, Logan was — not to say that it was easy — but it wasn’t as challenging from a schedule standpoint as The Knick was. Logan was 36 days. That’s leisurely compared to what we had on The Knick." Although it wasn't entirely unexpected, Cinemax officially cancelled The Knick just last month.
LOGAN LUCKY will hit theaters on August 18, 2017.