Due to his planned sabbatical/semi-retirement, there are only a few more Steven Soderbergh films planned for the time being. We saw his virus thriller Contagion hit theaters this fall, then there is his action flick Haywire this January, his male stripper movie Magic Mike next summer and then capping things off with his Liberace biopic. It now looks like we’ll see one less film from the director.

The Playlist is reporting that he has exited The Man of U.N.C.L.E., the spy thriller he was developing with Warner Bros. and his Contagion and The Informant! writer Scott Z. Burns. A spring shoot was planned for the film, but the makers could not agree on casting or budget.

It isn’t quite a surprising development, as it seems there has been almost weekly reports of casting changes including George Clooney, Johnny Depp Michael Fassbender, Channing Tatum, Bradley Cooper, Joel Edgerton, Ryan Gosling, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Alexander Skarsgard. For one reason or another, Soderbergh or WB couldn’t agree on any casting decision.

The spy film had a $60 million budget and was set to become a trilogy, with WB even willing to push production all the way to 2013 with the lead being Matt Damon, when he is finally freed up, but Soderbergh was keen on going through his retirement plans by then.

WB will likely push the production while searching for someone else to helm, while Soderbergh is rumored to have another unknown project that could fill the gap before his Liberace biopic shoots. But that film, headed to HBO, will be his last for a good while. It is unfortunate, since this was the film I was most looking forward to out of his upcoming ones (aside from possibly Magic Mike) , but I’m eager to see what project will take up his time instead.

What do you think about Soderbergh dropping U.N.C.L.E.? Would you like him to shoot another project instead?

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