Steven Soderbergh’s secret iPhone movie has Hollywood abuzz

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Soderbergh iPhone movie
Director Steven Soderbergh has reportedly made movie magic with an iPhone.
Photo: YouTube

Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh has the kind of filmography that gives him plenty of negotiating power when requesting money to make a film.

But the star filmmaker is a fan of low-budget, experimental movie-making and one of his upcoming titles was reportedly shot on an iPhone.

Variety magazine and The Tracking Board broke the story on Soderbergh’s iPhone movie, reportedly titled Unsane, which will star Juno Temple and Claire Foy, who won a Golden Globe for her role in The Crown.

The Tracking Board, a news site with a knack for Hollywood insider scoops, said the movie was shot in secret and will likely be self-distributed in the U.S, though the website said he is shopping it to international distributors.

Unsane wouldn’t be the first feature film shot on iPhone. Sean Baker won critical acclaim for his film Tangerine, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2015 and caught audiences by surprise when one of the last lines in the ending credits listed the iPhone 5s as the camera on the set.

best films of 2015 tangerine
Tangerine was big hit at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.
Photo: Magnolia Pictures

In an interview with Cult of Mac, Baker expressed gratitude for the praise but worried that his groundbreaking use of iPhones along with apps and accessories that gave the film cinematic gloss would pigeonhole him.

Soderbergh’s use of the iPhone will no doubt raise the handset’s profile as a movie-making tool and as Apple upgrades the camera and software with each generation, we are likely to see more feature films shot on iPhone.

Soderbergh won an Oscar for Traffic and has titles like Sex, Lies and Videotape and Oceans Eleven to his credit.

The Tracking Board predicted the film industry press will likely press Soderbergh for details on the iPhone movie as he begins to promote the movie, Logan Lucky, set for release later this summer.

He was recently on Reddit for an “Ask Me Anything” session where a reader asked him for advice on getting financing for a film.

“Get a script and an iPhone and start shooting. Seriously,” Soderbergh said.

Sources: IndieWire, The Tracking Board, and Variety.

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