Soderbergh’s ‘Side Effects’ Loses Financial Backing From Annapurna Pictures

This doesn’t bode well.

Variety is reporting (with a bit of confirmation/further sleuthing by The Playlist), that Annapurna Pictures has backed out of their co-financing duties for the upcoming Steven Soderbergh film, ‘˜Side Effects.’ It was just a week ago when we had learned about the young company’s involvement in the project (they have slowly started to back some of the biggest projects yet to be released, such as Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘˜The Master’), and now the company is out, after news broke that actress Blake Lively would be the star of the picture.

The film will follow the story of ‘a troubled and depressed woman who is taking serious amounts of prescription drugs, which leads her into a relationship with another doctor (Jude Law). Her intake is ostensibly designed to help her deal with the anxiety surrounding the pending release of her husband (Channing Tatum) from prison.’

The film will also star Catherine Zeta-Jones and, allegedly, Michael Douglas. Personally, while it doesn’t bode well for any film to have its financers back out, Soderbergh is such a beloved filmmaker, that it must be said that it won’t be hard for him to find new money. Hopefully that happens sooner rather than later, but at this point, things appear to have stalled on this film’s front.

What do you think?

Source Variety / The Playlist

5 comments

Billy Ogawa says:

January 25, 2012 at 5:47 am

I think Soderbergh needs to stop casting Channing Tatum in things.
Josh Brunsting says:

January 25, 2012 at 8:57 am

Why? He was really quite solid in Haywire. Â Don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to see him as a prison inmate. He’ll be fine.
Billy Ogawa says:

January 26, 2012 at 3:24 pm

I didn’t think he was solid at all in Haywire. Either way, Soderbergh can and should be working with actors that are a lot more than just solid. Unless he’s making another Bubble, in which case a more amateurish quality in the acting enhances the narrative. In my opinion, Tatum brings nothing to his roles and nothing to Soderbergh’s films.
Josh Brunsting says:

January 26, 2012 at 9:28 pm

Again, I don’t think he was brilliant, but I found there to be a slight little spark between Carano and Tatum, adding some sort of realism to their relationship, despite not really knowing all that much about their history. Â To each there own though. Â Trust me, I’m in the minority here ;)
Billy Ogawa says:

October 21, 2012 at 4:18 pm

I take back what I said. After Magic Mike and 21 Jump Street, I kinda love Tatum.