9 Fun Facts About Steven Soderbergh's Reading and Movie-Viewing Habits

soderbergh300.jpgStudio 360's Kurt Anderson recently got a hold of a list of all books, movies, short stories, plays and TV shows that director Steven Soderbergh has taken in over the last year. Since Soderbergh is arguably one of the most interesting and successful working (though not for much longer), it's fascinating to get a glimpse into his cultural consumption; unlike some filmmakers, Soderbergh doesn't live in some sort of cultural bubble, but rather reads constantly and watches (then rewatches) movies obsessively. Take a look at nine fun facts about Soderbergh based on the list after the jump.

You can also take a look at the entire list in a PDF file here and draw your own conclusions.

1. Soderbergh programs interesting double features.

A few favorites: Inside Job/Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps; Rebecca/To Catch a Thief; Risky Business/Aliens

2. The Social Network really did a number on him.

The director watched David Fincher's film four times. One time he watched it twice in one day, but still found time in between to check out Tommy Wiseau's infamous midnight movie, The Room.

3. He consumes more film than literature.

To be fair, he didn't log the number of hours spent on each activity, but over the last year, Soderbergh watched around 200 Movies (including his own) and read around only 40 books.

4. But he still reads really fast.

I'm not sure if the book titles on the list indicate the day that a book was finished or started, but it appears that he managed to read David Foster Wallace's thousand-something page Infinite Jest and two novels by John Barth in the course of about a week.

5. He totally saw Predators.

No notes on whether he felt as let down by it as I did.

6. His favorite TV shows are Mad Men and Breaking Bad

Just like you!

7. He probably never wants to see his new thriller Haywire again.

He has now seen it somewhere around fourteen times, although most were probably different cuts.

8. He keeps thinking about movies days after he watches them.

Hence, the day after he watched Jaws, he watched the making-of documentary The Shark is still Working. He also read The Accidental Millionaires after watching The Social Network for the third time.

9. He once watched Raiders of the Lost Ark three times in one week.

I imagine we've all had weeks like that... but Soderbergh apparently prefers it in black and white.

· Steven Soderbergh's Daily Diet [Studio360]



Comments

  • bailey says:

    Anybody else gonna watch "Raiders" in b&w now?

  • Yibbet says:

    I'm going to assume he didn't vote Tom Hooper as best director since THE KING"S SPEECH was MIA, while TSN, True Grit, Black Swan and The Fighter were all listed.

  • John Lang says:

    I think the more interesting note about Raiders of the Lost Ark is that he squeezed Tiny Furniture in there. What does that say about Tiny Furniture.

  • John Lang says:

    *What does that say about Tiny Furniture? Tiny Furniture vs. Raiders?

  • James says:

    He was clearly watching The Social Network that many times to offer notes. Those were unfinished cuts he was watching, as the film was still in production at the time. Only the Dec viewing would be the finished film.