Steven Soderbergh's Kimi Gets A Release Date On HBO Max
Remember when Steven Soderbergh retired from filmmaking? He's been a busy bee the last few years, so one could be forgiven for putting that out of mind. And to be fair, Soderbergh's nominal "retirement" was more about stepping away from the theatrical side of filmmaking. For his next movie, "Kimi," he's lined up an exclusive streaming premiere, and it's coming sooner than you might expect.
Warner Bros. has announced (via Deadline) that "Kimi" will make its debut on HBO Max on February 10, 2022. As we previously reported, "Kimi" stars Zoë Kravitz as:
"...an agoraphobic tech worker who discovers recorded evidence of a violent crime during an ordinary data stream review and tries reporting it up the chain of command at her company. Meeting with resistance and bureaucracy, she realizes that in order to get involved, she will have to do the thing she fears the most — leave her apartment."
Soderbergh has compared "Kimi" to Francis Ford Coppola's "The Conversation," as well as single-location thrillers like Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window" and David Fincher's "Panic Room." The idea of a character being afraid to leave the apartment is one that has taken on a different dimension thanks to the pandemic, and Soderbergh has also said: "The aftermath of [COVID-19] is an aspect of the story [in 'Kimi']. So there's that, because it ties into certain psychological issues that our lead character is battling."
If you, too, hesitate to leave the apartment and pack into a theater with other people while the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is spreading, then have no fear, because you'll be able to enjoy "Kimi" in the comfort of your own home in less than two months.
Soderbergh's Busy Post-Retirement Career
This year, Soderbergh produced the Academy Awards and shook up the format of the ceremony, while his film "No Sudden Move" also went straight to HBO Max. Last year, his Meryl Streep vehicle "Let Them All Talk" premiered on the same streaming service, and two years ago he had "High Flying Bird" and "The Laundromat" hit Netflix. In 2017 and 2018, "Logan Lucky" and Soderbergh's iPhone-shot thriller "Unsane" did secure theatrical distribution, but for the most part he's been gravitating toward streaming platforms as of late.
He's also been flirting with other mediums. Soderbergh's murder mystery, "Mosaic," debuted as an interactive experience via a mobile app in 2017, before heading to HBO as a TV miniseries without the same interactive functionality. As a master filmmaker who has embraced new forms of technology, there's arguably no one better suited than Soderbergh to update a classic like "The Conversation" for the data-streaming era.
"Kimi" comes to HBO Max on February 10, 2022.