Oscar Outlook 2012: Magic Mike

A lot of new blood on Magic Mike about a bunch of Hollywood hunks strutting their hot bodies partly to swoon over and partly for laughs.  This project may found its inspiration in the revelation from a few years ago that rising star Channing Tatum had a secret past as a stripper in his late teens.  We all know that Soderbergh writes, produces and edits some of his films, but did you know that after working with cinematographers Walt Lloyd and Elliot Davis in the earlier era of his career, he worked under the pseudonym Peter Andrews and lensed his own movies?  Maybe I was just sleeping under a rock, but Magic Mike will be his first movie officially crediting his actual identity.

[Pictures via Advocate, EW, Hollywood Dame]


Anyhow, as far as "Oscar talk" people are mumbling something about Tatum's costar Matthew McConaughey.  All my girlfriends think he's sexy.  I just don't get it.  He is one of my least favorite actors working in Hollywood and he has had way more opportunities than he has earned.  I'll admit, though, he was perfectly cast early in his career as the sleazy twentysomething scamming high-school tail.  He had that part down.  He has never been as good since, though he has more plum roles springing up in Mud and The Paperboy before he hopefully permanently retires to the small screen.  If his character is unrepentantly void of earnestness, then, yeah, maybe he has a chance.  Also, in this cast is eternally adorable Matt Bomer with his lean, God-like features, as well as True Blood wolf-blooded Joseph Manganiello, Alex Pettyfer, and Adam Rodriguez.

Reid Carolin, who also worked with Channing Tatum on Ten Year, wrote the screenplay.  The two of them are producing along with Gregory Jacobs (goes back with Soderbergh all the way to Full Frontal) and Nick Wechsler (goes all the way back to Sex, Lies, and Videotape, as well as worked with Darren Aronofsky).  The production design team includes art director Stephen I. Erdberg and Glee set decorator Barbara Munch.  Fairly new costume designer Christopher Peterson is currently working on Beat-generation movie Kill Your Darlings.  How ironic that many of his creations will be made only to be taken off.  The $5M-budgeted movie filmed last Fall and Warner Bros. Pictures is sure to make a killing when it release in the US on June 29.  When was Soderbergh retiring again?

poll by twiigs.com

Also on the Radar:

Anna Karenina     Argo     Beasts of the Southern Wild     The Bourne Legacy     The Dark Knight Rises     Dark Shadows     Django Unchained     Gangster Squad     Great Expectations     The Great Gatsby     The Hobbit     Hope Springs     The Hunger Games     Hyde Park on the Hudson     Lawless     Lincoln     Lola Versus     Lovelace     Low Life     Magic Mike     The Master     Les Misérables     Life of Pi     Moonrise Kingdom     People Like Us     Prometheus     To Rome with Love     Ruby Sparks     Savages     Seeking a Friend for the End of the World     The Silver Linings Playbook     Smashed     The Surrogate     Trouble with the Curve     Won't Back Down 


The Avengers     The Amazing Spider-Man     Men in Black III