Steven Soderbergh declares movies need stars to survive

Steven Soderbergh has declared movies need "stars" to survive.

The 'Traffic' director has opened up about the current state of the film industry and insisted it's getting increasingly more difficult to score a hit so all big projects need some A-list sparkle to progress at the box office.

Speaking at the Toronto Film Festival in Canada on Thursday (12.09.24), Soderbergh explained: "For movies to work, they need movie stars. It’s great if the story is big enough to pull people in on its own, but that’s hard, and increasingly harder to do ... It’s gotten more difficult to quantify what is bringing people to a specific film, and what makes a specific film a hit."

According to The Hollywood Reporter, he added: "At the end of the day, the only solve is good s***. You got to make good s***. You’ve got to focus on that."

During the informal conversation event, Soderbergh also opened up about a passion project he's been working on for almost 15 years - writing a book about his favourite film 'Jaws'.

He revealed the book analyses Steven Spielberg's 1975 classic from a moviemaking perspective and will be aimed at film students and future directors.

Soderbergh revealed he first saw the film at the age of 12 and it sparked his interest in making movies. He said of the project: "I’ve been working on this thing [the book] that is ostensibly about directing and uses as its spine an analysis of the making of 'Jaws' day-to-day.

"This book is not for general consumption. This is for people who are interested in films, either as moviegoers or [who] want to do this job. Because if you’re going to do this job, you need to understand the job. This is the job.

"I’m going to walk you through the experience of making it as a jumping off point to talk about problem solving and process."