Steven Soderbergh knows that a star-studded cast is important, but he encourages directors to simply make good films.
What does the film do? good? And even better, what makes it successful? Is it based on numbers in the office or streaming views? What draws viewers into the theater or into pressing play? Even Steven Soderbergh isn’t entirely sure, but he has one idea about what filmmakers need to do…
Steven Soderbergh speaking at the Toronto International Film Festival stated, “It's become more difficult to determine what attracts people to a certain movie and what makes a certain movie a hit… At the end of the day, the only solution is good shit. You have to make good shit. You have to focus on that.” In addition, Soderbeg noted that stardom should almost always be a deciding factor. “Movies need stars to work. It's great if the story is big enough to captivate people on its own, but it's hard, and it's getting harder.”
Soderbergh has a horror movie in the works right now. Presence is approaching release (read our review here). But he relies far less on his stars than on his hook, showing his confidence in the story, which comes from David Koepp. Let's face it, most people won't watch it for Lucy Liu, but because Soderbergh plays with genre — and in a way that's no less clever than Presence (filmed from a first-person perspective).
Steven Soderbergh has been in the film industry for over 35 years, arriving at a pivotal moment in American cinema history with his sex, lies and videotape to revive the value of independent cinema and give it a new place in Hollywood. That the film premiered at Sundance and then won the Palme d'Or was nothing short of mind-blowing (just ask Spike Lee!). Soderbergh has seen how movies have changed dramatically since then. And while he has plenty of opinions on the state of the industryHe's also learned to adapt. We're all familiar with his supposed “one for them, one for me” model, but it's also cool to see that he can switch between releasing his films in theaters and on streaming services depending on the work. So if this isn't a guy who can figure out what makes a hit, who can?
What attracts you more when watching a movie: the stars or the plot? Or is there a combination?