If you’re coming back for one last ride, better make it count. Steven Soderbergh teased that in his return as director of “Magic Mike’s Last Dance,” the film is going all out to end with a massive dance sequence exceeding half an hour. That’s a lot of skin.
“We wanted to blow the dancing up in a big way,” Soderbergh said in a new interview with Empire magazine Wednesday. “We have this dance number with Channing [Tatum] and Salma [Hayek] right up front. And then the last 30-plus minutes of the movie are just this giant dance sequence.”
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Soderbergh added that the sequence in question was shot in an old South London theater called the Chapman Grand which allowed him to stretch his experimentation, perhaps a good reason why he was willing to return for “Last Dance” after stepping aside for “Magic Mike XXL.” And the way Soderbergh describes it, you’d think he was remaking “An American in Paris,” which helps when you have a modern-day Gene Kelly like Channing Tatum capable of doing anything with his legs.
“My job is, how do I make each one of these distinct? I can’t shoot them all the same way, I have to come up with a different approach for each dance. And that was really the challenge,” Soderbergh said. “That was fun, there’s not a bad angle to be had in that place.”
Soderbergh also hinted at some of the themes of the third film in the “Magic Mike” franchise, saying that in addition to Mike staging a massive show in a legendary London theater, it also is the first time Mike is seen in a serious relationship.
“The first film was a fairly straightforward rendering of a set of characters who exist in a certain milieu that hasn’t changed since its inception. And the second film was pushing out a little bit to talk about what women are looking for on a night out in which fantasies and sexuality are explored — and how do you retain a sense of mystery, while still existing in an environment in which things like permission and consent are front and centre?” Soderbergh said. “The third film just really dives into this in a much bigger way, partially because for the first time we see Mike in a relationship. So that just allows for a dynamic and a set of discussions that we haven’t had access to, prior to ‘Magic Mike’s Last Dance.’”
“Magic Mike’s Last Dance” opens in theaters February 10, 2023. You can check out the trailer here and Soderbergh’s full interview here.
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