Director Steven Soderbergh has said several times that he plans to retire from the movie business after he finishes his current slate of projects (Liberace, The Man from U.N.C.L.E, and stripfest Magic Mike). Whether he’ll actually follow through remains unclear (apparently, he just decided to help out on Gary Ross’s The Hunger Games), but he now claims to have a specific new occupation in mind: painter. As he recently told a reporter, “I’m interested in exploring another art form while I have the time and ability to do so.” However, he added, this supposed career shift comes with a pretty major caveat: “I’ll be the first person to say if I can’t be any good at it and run out of money I’ll be back making another Ocean’s movie.” While bankruptcy seems unlikely for the Oscar winner, we wonder what his definition of “good” is. After all, Steven Soderbergh–level success is pretty difficult to achieve in any industry, let alone two. [THR]
