Steven Soderbergh And Russo Brothers Talk ‘Welcome to Collinwood,’ Marvel & Their “Tremendous Hope” For The Future Of The Movie Biz — Sands Film Festival
23.04.2024 - 08:22
/ deadline.com
A small piece of contemporary cinema history was written last night in St Andrews, Scotland when Steven Soderbergh sat down with Joe and Anthony Russo on stage at the Sands International Film Festival to discuss their 2002 collaboration Welcome to Collinwood.
Produced by Soderbergh and George Clooney who also stars alongside William H. Macy, Isaiah Washington, Sam Rockwell, Luis Guzmán, and Patricia Clarkson, Welcome to Collinwood was the second feature from the Russos following their debut feature Pieces, which bombed out of Slamdance in 1997.
“There was zero interest in the film from anybody but this man over here,” Anthony said of Pieces, pointing towards Soderbergh. The sex, lies and videotape filmmaker had been present at the doomed Pieces screening at Slamdance and reached out to the directing duo to impart some wisdom.
“It was insanely ambitious and dense,” Soderbergh told Deadline’s Mike Fleming Jr, who moderated the talk, of Pieces. “There’s a lot of shots. Shots I stole. I was just very activated by how activated they were and it was clear they were grinders.”
The subsequent friendship between the trio led to Welcome to Collinwood, which Soderbergh produced with Clooney through their now-defunct Section Eight production company for Warner Bros. Last night’s Q&A marked the first time all three have ever discussed their long friendship and collaboration for a public audience.
Collinwood was a hit with the audience at Sands, many of whom had never seen the film. The pic hasn’t been screened in the UK since 2003 and, at the time, did very little business on either side of the Atlantic.
“Collinwood ended up costing around $7 million and it made a grand total of $300,000 at the box office,” Joe said of the