Soderbergh's Tyranny of Narrative, Haywire at SDCC, Can Carano Hold a Candle to Action Star Jolie?

Steven Soderbergh presented footage from Haywire at Comic-Con. It was well-received. In ThePlaylist's interview with the director, he admits they weren't sure if Comic-Con was the right fit for the film, but "ultimately we decided, yeah, this is our take on the action film and we should show it off.” It was a good call, because the movie features an ass-kicking (and hot) female MMA champion, Gina Carano, muscle-boy Channing Tatum and newfound heartthrob and serious thesp Michael Fassbender (Carano and Tatum joined Soderbergh on stage for the panel). Why wouldn't it play well at Comic-Con?

The footage they shared, while it has impressive stunt-double-free action, is not an indicator of whether the film is actually any good or not. While we are starving for a female-focused action-spy-thriller, just because someone can kick ass doesn't mean they can act (see Steven Seagal).

At Comic-Con, Carano said: "[Acting] is definitely a skill and not everyone is capable of doing it." (She said shooting the film was like "Acting 101"). While at the panel, I overheard men disputing Angelina Jolie's believability as an action star--"she's too frail, she can't act, etc"--and spouting excitement for Carano, who does all her own stunts and has some serious thigh strength, but the fact remains that Jolie is an action star and marquee draw as well. Even train wreck The Tourist had wings because she was in it.

As for Soderbergh's retirement--“Matt Damon is apparently is about as discreet as a fourteen-year old girl"--he still plans to do it but we need to chill out on marking it in our calendars. He has several other projects he wants to tackle, including Magic Mike, with Tatum as a male-stripper (which "has to be [shot] in September"). Here's more on Liberace, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and Cleopatra-musical Cleo. Plus;

“I’m still going to be making things, I just may not be making feature films,” he tells ThePlaylist, “I could also make some short film that takes a couple of years to make that doesn’t adhere to any [traditional] marketing film structure,..I’ve said it before, but it would be nice to free myself from the tyranny of narrative. It’s nice to keep trying to surprise yourself and keep your creative senses fresh and on their toes.”

Here's lots more from the Haywire panel. Relativity is releasing the film January 20, 2012. Here's the trailer: