It looks like Channing Tatum won’t just be stripping-down for the sequel to 2012’s Magic Mike, he might actually be directing it as well. There has been talk of a second installment to the Steven Soderbergh-helmed film since the original’s success last summer. Ideas for a prequel were also bounced around, and work on the script began soon after the release.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Tatum revealed that either he and his fellow producer Reid Carolin (who also wrote Magic Mike) will team-up to direct, or that Greg Jacobs, Soderbergh’s longtime producing partner and first assistant director, will take the job. While it seems ambitious, almost ill-advised, to take on a project in the shadow of Steven Soderbergh without very much directorial experience – in fact, no directorial experience as of yet – Tatum appears to be ready and willing to give it a shot, though not as his directorial debut. He said he would prefer to work on a smaller project first and “make a lot of mistakes, make them real early, and then go jump in.”
Soderbergh has given his support to the actor, declaring that he would serve as DP if Tatum were to helm Magic Mike 2. Tatum’s willingness does not mean he isn’t a bit wary of it all. He has offered up his sentiments in a metaphor saying, “It would be like having sex with your girlfriend while her porn-star ex-boyfriend is in the room watching you.” How appropriate. Tatum has said that this film will be decidedly less dramatic and less stylistically Soderbergh. It will be a fun, road-trip movie that reunites the characters from the first film, and “less slice-of-life and less drama. The first one, we had to make not so cheesy and campy; this one we are going to swing for the fences.” If that’s true, it would certainly give Tatum and Carolin a chance to put their stamp on it.
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