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.

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.