Soderbergh discusses his U.N.C.L.E. plans

Last month, the Omaha World-Herald reported on an appearance by Steven Soderbergh in which the director referenced his plans to do a movie based on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Now a recording of that appearance has surfaced.

On the Studio 360< Web site, there's a short story that includes an audio recording of Soderbergh’s comments in Omaha. In the recording, Soderbergh, 48, confirms he’s down to two unproduced films before he retires as a director.

“Liberace and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. are the only things I’m obligated to do,” Soderbergh said starting about 40 minutes into the session. “To do Liberace with Matt Damon and Michael Douglas and to do Man From U.N.C.L.E. with George (Clooney)…that’s a great way to have a sort of farewell tour. George and I found ourselves at the right time…For years we’ve both been trying to find something to do.”

In response to a questioner, Soderberg says Clooney would play Napoleon Solo. The Liberace film is a movie biography with Douglas the entertainer and Damon as his lover.

No other details were disclosed and all of Soderbergh’s comments come at the end of the recording. But it is an on-the-record confirmation of what has been reported so far in the entertainment press. Meanwhile, Clooney, who turns 50 on May 6, is directing and starring in a movie called The Ides of March, which is being filmed in Michigan, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Season 1 (well, part of it) of The FBI coming out on DVD

The first half of season one of The FBI is coming out on DVD, according to the TV Shows on DVD Web site.

TV Shows on DVD says the set is a “manufacture on demand,” or MOD, release. So don’t expect to see it on stores. For information on pre-ordering YOU CAN CLICK HERE. Warner Bros. will start shipping in May.

The show ran from 1965 to 1974 and was producer Quinn Martin’s longest-running series. Some time back, on our parent HMSS site, we ran an article about some of the espionage themed stories from the series.

This first DVD release only has one spy-themed episode, The Problem of the Honorable Wife.

But it does have other highlights, including one of the rare “personal” episodes for Efrem Zimbalist Jr.’s FBI Inspector Lewis Erskine (Slow March Up a Steep Hill), Jeffrey Hunter as a killer with sexual identity problems, a subject not that common for 1965 television (The Monster) and Robert Duvall as a mentally unbalanced man out to sabotage a U.S. missile launch (The Giant Killer).

To read brief descriptions of all 31 season 1 episodes, YOU CAN CLICK HERE.

UPDATE: No telling hard long it’ll stay up, but here’s the start of the first episode on YouTube: