Most people have found themselves with a little more time at home this year than originally planned, but some have thrown themselves into creative projects, be it learning to cook, figuring out how to recreate their favourite theme park ride or, in the case of Steven Soderbergh, writing a sequel to one of their most famous films. Sex, Lies, and Videotape 2, anyone?
Appearing on the NightCap Live podcast ostensibly to promote his Bolivian Brandy, Soderbergh revealed that he's been hard at work on a few scripts, including the follow-up to his 1989 breakthrough. "During the lockdown, I’ve done more sustained writing than I’ve done since the summer of 1985," he says. "And it’s worth noting that I never considered myself a writer. I wrote as a way to get into the business, because nobody can stop you from sitting down in front of a keyboard and writing. I grew up in a suburban subdivision in Baton Rouge, I had no connections to the film industry at all, and I just felt if I write, I may write something that somebody sees and reads and wants to make.
"So when the lockdown happened here in New York, in order to stay organized and sane, I decided I’m gonna write. I’ve gotta go back to writing. So within the first 6 or 7 weeks of the lockdown, I finished 3 screenplays. One of them was a rewrite, one of them was an original, and one was an adaptation of a novel that I’ve been wanting to do. The original was a sequel to Sex, Lies, and Videotape. It was an idea that had been circling for awhile, and I felt like I came up with the way to get back in, and so I wrote it, and I wanna make it."
Though 2002's Full Frontal was considered a 'spiritual' sequel to the film, it featured none of the same characters. The original Videotape featured James Spader, Andie MacDowell, Peter Gallagher and Laura San Giacomo in the story of women confessing their sexual desires on camera and the ramifications that their admissions have in their lives. We'll have to wait and see what shape Soderbergh's planned sequel takes, but for now, watch the full interview below.