Steven Soderbergh to direct male stripper film starring Channing Tatum

Steven Soderbergh said some time ago that he was going to retire from directing, but we keep on hearing about him picking up projects that are certainly delaying him in keeping his promise. So what’s the latest film Soderbergh will direct that will keep him from retiring? A film about male strippers starring Channing Tatum, that’s what.

The film, titled Magic Mike, is based on 19-year-old Tatum’s experience as a stripper, and is being described as “a story of friendship set in the world of male strippers.” Hit the jump to see what Soderbergh and Tatum have to say regarding this project.

I thought we had seen enough of the life of male stripper after The Full Monty came out back in the 90′s, but Soderbergh thinks this film is a good idea. He’s what the director had to say:

“When Channing talked to me about this, I thought it was one of the best ideas I’d ever heard for a movie. I said I wanted in immediately. It’s sexy, funny and shocking. We’re using Saturday Night Fever as our model, so hopefully we’re on the right track.”

Tatum has wanted to get this film off the ground for a while now, but didn’t have any takers. A serious film about male strippers has to be hard to sell, considering there isn’t a large audience for a film of that nature. Now that Soderbergh is attached to direct, Tatum is excited he will be able to tell us his experiences on the big screen.

This was a wild and pivotal time in my life and I couldn’t be more thrilled to go down the rabbit hole with Steven.

Deadline reports Soderbergh will tackle Magic Mike later this year in either September or October. He recently finished work on Haywire an espionage drama starring Gina Carano, Tatum, Michael Douglas, Michael Fassbender and Ewan McGregor which hits theaters in August. He also has another star-studded film titled Contagion coming out in October, where we’ll see Matt Damon, Marion Cotillard, Jude Law and Kate Winslet dealing with the outbreak of a deadly virus.

Soderbergh is planning on squeezing Magic Mike into his busy schedule before he begins work on the Liberace biopic starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon, and before he directs George Clooney in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. So, if all goes according to plan, Soderbergh will retire from filmmaking sometime in 2013 or 2014, but that could still change.