Steven Soderbergh is not ready to retire quite yet.
Annapurna Pictures and Open Road Films have partnered on "Traffic" director's psychological thriller "Side Effects," the companies said Wednesday. Believed to be set in the world of psychopharmacology, the film was previously titled "Bitter Pill."
Soderbergh slid into the project when he parted ways with Warner Bros. over casting differences on "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." It will be one of his final projects before he begins his much-publicized hiatus from the movie business.
Annapurna is the production company of Megan Ellison, daughter of Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison. It has shown a penchant for auteur driven projects such as Kathryn Bigelow’s “Untitled Project” about the capture of Osama Bin Laden; and Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master.”
Also read: The Ellison Kids: Billionaire Producers Making Their Mark on Hollywood
Annapurna will finance and produce the film and Open Road will release it in the United States.
Lorenzo di Bonaventura is producing with Gregory Jacobs and Scott Z. Burns ("Contagion," "The Informant!"), who also wrote the screenplay. Ellison, Marc Butan and Ted Schipper will serve as executive producers.
"Side Effects" is scheduled to start shooting in April 2012. The film will be released wide by Open Road in the first half of 2013.
Soderbergh is describing his retirement as a necessary step to recharge his batteries, telling Indiewire recently, "This is just something that has to be done. I have to slough this skin off and grow a new one."
In addition to "Side Effects," he still has a few more projects in the pipeline. Up next is the action film "Haywire," which hits theaters on Friday, followed by the Channing Tatum stripper drama "Magic Mike" and the Liberace biopic "Behind the Candelabra" for HBO.
Filmnation is handling international sales on behalf of Annapurna and will introduce the film to buyers at next month’s Berlin Film Festival.