While Steven Soderbergh has made a number of movies over the past few years, for whatever reason, I’d never had an opportunity to speak with him.  So when I was offered a possible interview for his latest thriller, Side Effects, I sent an email saying I’d like to do it and figured it would never happen.  Thankfully, I was wrong.

At the Los Angeles press day, I was given 45 minutes with Soderbergh (he only does 45-minute interviews), and we talked about a wide variety of subjects like his his post-retirement plans, Twitter, comic book movies, his preferred digital camera, whether digital can ever match IMAX quality, 48fps, the success of Magic Mike and the sequel, his work as second unit director on The Hunger Games, championing Christopher Nolan before the world knew who he was, his filmmaking process, editing while shooting, why he cut 45 minutes out of Contagion and why you’ll probably never see the footage, Kickstarter, and so much more.  If you’re a Soderbergh fan, I promise you’ll dig this interview.  Hit the jump to either read or listen to what he had to say.

With director Steven Soderbergh’s latest film, the psychological thriller Side Effects, hitting theaters this coming Friday, the filmmaker has been sitting down for a few interviews as part of the film’s marketing campaign.  This is a curious case, though, because Side Effects also marks Soderbergh’s possibly final theatrically-released film.  As such, said interviews have been more varied than usual, with the filmmaker eager to discuss a multitude of subjects.

Steve recently sat down with Soderbergh for a 45-minute interview, and due to the conversation’s length we’re breaking it up into smaller portions before unveiling the whole thing (read Part 1 here).  Today, in Part 2, Soderbergh talks about the surprising success of Magic Mike, his involvement in Magic Mike 2, the new box office climate of knowing whether your film has succeeded or failed by Friday afternoon, his second-unit work on The Hunger Games, how he championed Christopher Nolan to direct Insomnia when Warner Bros. wasn’t so sure, and more.  Hit the jump to read on.

It became clear around September that putting together a Top 10 list this year was going to be incredibly difficult.  We’ve been provided with an embarrassment of riches throughout the year, and so the prospect of whittling it down to a list of my ten favorites proved daunting.  2012 seems destined to go down in history as “one of those years” like 1999, 1994, or 1977, where a large number of the year’s offerings will stand the test of time.  Though this list expresses what films I connected with most out of the past 12 months, there are at least 10 or 15 other movies that I also really enjoyed waiting just outside the wings.  If forced to pick my ten favorites from 2012, though, this is what I’ve come up with.  Hit the jump to take a look.

In past years for my “Best of” list, I’ve been able to provide fun categories like “Best Kill” and “Best Quotes”, but sadly, that won’t be happening this year.  I keep notes throughout the year, but in July, my hard drive crashed, and because I am a foolish person, I didn’t back up the notes to a separate drive.  However, I do have enough information to do the traditional categories as well as Breakthrough Performance, “A Very Good Year”, Best Villain, Best Surprises, Biggest Disappointments, and a new category, “Best Movie You Probably Missed This Year.”  One final note: unlike previous years, the film had to come out in 2012; festival-only flicks don’t count, so that’s why there’s no love for The Place Beyond the Pines on this year’s list.

Hit the jump to check out my miscellaneous “Best of 2012″ picks.  Be sure to keep checking back this week as we’ll be running Top 10 lists from Adam, Dave, and me.

Just yesterday we got a look at the 104 scores that will be gunning for the Best Original Score Oscar at the upcoming 85th Academy Awards, and today the Academy has unveiled the list of 75 songs that will be competing for the coveted Best Original Song trophy.  While the expected contenders like “Suddenly” from Les Miserables and “Song of the Lonely Mountain” from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey appear, one of the pleasant surprises is Adele’s “Skyfall” from Skyfall.

Since Adele’s magnificent Bond track draws a few cues from the franchise’s theme, many assumed that the Academy might rule it ineligible for the Best Original Song trophy.  Not so, it appears, and now it looks like Adele just might land herself an Academy Award to keep those 47 Grammys company.  Also of note, Matthew McConaughey could find himself a Best Original Song nominee for “Ladies of Tampa” from Magic Mike.  MAKE THIS HAPPEN, PEOPLE.  Hit the jump to check out the full list.  The nominations for the 85th Academy Awards will be announced January 10th.

The New York Film Critics Circle has kicked the awards race off in earnest, and the love was spread primarily between Zero Dark Thirty and Lincoln.  The drama about the hunt for Osama bin Laden took home Best Picture, Best Director for Kathryn Bigelow, and Best Cinematographer, while Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln was awarded Best Screenplay, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actress.  The group also had a couple of left field choices with the Best Supporting Actor award going to Matthew McConaughey for Magic Mike (alright, alright, alright) and Best Actress going to Rachel Weisz for The Deep Blue Sea.  McConaughey winning the trophy was a pleasant surprise, but Weisz’s win is a tad baffling.

Hit the jump to check out the full list of winners, and click here to peruse our recent Oscar Preview features.

Oscar season is in full swing, folks.  2012 has been a fantastic year in film so far, and with merely weeks to go before 2013 begins there are still a couple of highly anticipated films that have yet to be seen.  Just like last year, I’ll be running down a preview of the upcoming Oscar race during this fine Thanksgiving week, giving readers a look at what the state of the race looks like right now.  To be clear, this isn’t a personal list but rather an objective look at how things look to be shaping up.  I’ve divided each category into frontrunners, likely to be nominated, and other contenders in order to parse out where things stand at the moment.  There are multiple strong contenders in nearly every category, so this is looking to be a rather heated run to the finish line.

We’ll be looking at a couple of different major categories each day over the next four days, and we’re kicking things off with the Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories.  Hit the jump to read on.

Channing Tatum came close to being an also-ran, but this year turned him into a star. Between The Vow, 21 Jump Street and Magic Mike, he went from being a lunkhead into a likeable lunkhead. He got the joke. Magic Mike was directed by Steven Soderbergh, and the story was that Soderbergh was so intrigued by Tatum’s life as a male stripper, he saw potential for a movie there. He was right, there is a good movie in his story, and Magic Mike was one of the best mainstream films of the summer. Our review of the Blu-ray follows after the jump.

This week on Blu-ray, the revisionist Abraham Lincoln story comes to Blu, Blade Runner gets a 30th Anniversary edition upgrade, and Steven Soderbergh’s seriously great “male stripper movie” comes to home video.  Briefly:

• Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter [Blu-ray] – $19.99 (50% off)
• Blade Runner 30th Anniversary Collector’s Edition (4-Disc Blu-ray / DVD +UltraViolet Digital Copy Combo Pack) – $23.99 (31% off)
• Fear & Desire [Blu-ray] – $29.99 (14% off)
• Magic Mike (Blu-ray+DVD+UltraViolet Digital Copy Combo Pack) – $22.99 (36% off)
• Secret of the Wings (Four-Disc Combo: Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/DVD + Digital Copy) – $29.96 (40% off)
• Seeking a Friend for the End of the World [Blu-ray] – $19.99 (43% off)
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Season Four [Blu-ray] – $34.99 (42% off)
• Sunday Bloody Sunday (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] – $34.99 (12% off)
• Take This Waltz [Blu-ray] – $21.39 (29% off)

Hit the jump for all the details

A lot of actors have had a pretty good year, but Channing Tatum might have had the best so far.  He’s changed the opinion of plenty of folks (myself included) with 21 Jump Street and Magic Mike, and The Vow was also a hit at the box office.  Now he’s attached to numerous projects, and he talked about a couple of them while walking the red carpet for his new film, 10 Years.  While Tatum has been rumored to direct Magic Mike 2, he clarified that he doesn’t want the gig.  He also talked about The Wachowski Siblings‘ upcoming sci-fi film, Jupiter Ascending.

Hit the jump for more.

We previously reported that a sequel to Magic Mike was in the works after the success of the original film, but now it looks like star and producer Channing Tatum may find himself in the director’s chair for Magic Mike 2.  Since director Steven Soderbergh is planning on retiring from filmmaking and headed towards TV land, he presumably wouldn’t be returning for the sequel which leaves the spot open.  Tatum recently spoke about the possibility of him assuming the director’s role alongside screenwriting partner and producer Reid Carolin.  Carolin, meanwhile, leaked a few details about the plotline the sequel would follow.  Hit the jump to see what he said and to find out who else is in the running to direct Magic Mike 2.

One of the best films of 2012 so far is a movie about male strippers.  I’m dead serious.  With Magic Mike, director Steven Soderbergh crafted a movie that works wonderfully both as an entertaining ensemble and as an introspective, sad portrait of the reality of the American Dream.  Matthew McConaughey gives one of the best performances of his career, and Channing Tatum continues his 2012 streak of proving that he’s a genuinely talented guy.  Though we already know that Tatum and Jonah Hill are developing a sequel to 21 Jump Street, and Tatum recently revealed that he’s working on a stage musical adaptation of Magic Mike with Soderbergh, the actor now says that he’s also developing a feature film sequel to Magic Mike.  Hit the jump for more.

The theory that audiences would wait for the tentpole movies of July before opening their wallets went down in flames this weekend as two all-original movies (R-rated ones at that) delivered stellar openings. Ted and Magic Mike bested Brave by taking first and second place: nearly doubling their pre-weekend projections and giving box office watchers a lot more to consider than the imminent arrival of The Amazing Spider-Man.

So, it appears the answer to the question “did I underestimate the blockbuster potential of Ted” is a giant “Oh Hell Yes.”  From its first day in 3,239 locations the R-rated comedy from first-time film director Seth MacFarlane (the Family Guy guy) made an estimated $20.2 million. And this from a movie that was projected to earn only $25 million for its first weekend! With Friday’s huge win, Ted is now poised to take in double that by Sunday – a figure that would top The Hangover as the all-time highest debut from an R-rated (non-sequel) comedy. But Friday’s surprises were not limited to talking teddy bears. Magic Mike, the R-rated male-stripper movie starring Channing Tatum, was also a giant over-performer with an estimated $19.4 million from 2,930 venues. Again, that is just under what Magic Mike was projected to earn in its first three days. Meanwhile, Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection, in 2,161 locations, also had a bigger-than-expected first Friday, taking in an estimated $10.25 million for what should prove a $27 million opening weekend. In fact, of yesterday’s four major new releases, only the Disney-distributed People Like Us played as expected – opening outside the top five with a modest $1.4 million.  We’ll have full details and analysis of this weekend’s box office tomorrow.

This weekend I find myself deep in the heart of Louisville, KY for Fandomfest Louisville 2012. Part Comic-Con, part pop culture celebration, and part horror film festival, a few guests of note include Bruce Campbell, Sean Astin, Tyler Mane, and slasher icon Kane Hodder. While each of these attendees has a special place in my pop culture heart in one way or another, my mission today is to track down former WCW star Diamond Dallas Page. 10 year-old me loved nothing more than watching DDP and co. weekly on WCW Monday Nitro, and today may be the only opportunity I get to share that joy with someone who was an integral part of it.

All wrestling memories aside, awaiting you on the other side of this week’s Top 5 is a brief recap and link to our Magic Mike interviews with Channing Tatum, Steven Soderbergh and more, the new international and domestic trailers for Rian Johnson‘s Looper, Steve’s People Like Us video interviews with Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks and more, the new Total Recall trailer, and Brendan’s inaugural By the Numbers feature that spans Pixar’s entire filmography to date.