Steven Soderbergh and Channing Tatum are busily tracking down cast members for their indie male stripper drama Magic Mike. And now Matthew McConaughey is signing up for a role. We like to think that we heard it was about make strippers and figured there'd be a chance to take his shirt off in there somewhere.
As you’ll likely know by now, the movie is drawing on Tatum’s experiences as a teenage stripper in Florida. He pitched the idea to Soderbergh while working on the action thriller Haywire and the director has added it to the growing list of films he plans to make before retiring. Tatum’s producing partner Reid Carolin is in charge of getting the script written.
Tatum will play the title character, a stripper/dancer who mentors Alex Pettyfer in the way of the butt shake and how to manage when not performing.
McConaughey’s on as Dallas, a former dancer himself, who now owns a club called Xquisite, which is where Mike works.
The actor is a busy man of late: he’s busy working on Lee Daniels’ steamy thriller The Paperboy and will also take the lead in Jeff Nichols’ drama Mud. Plus he has Richard Linklater’s Bernie and William Friedkin’s Killer Joe sitting waiting to be released.
There’s no word on when Magic Mike will kick off shooting.