Back in 2012, Steven Soderbergh directed Channing Tatum in ‘Magic Mike’, which told the story of Mike Lane (Tatum), a thirty-year old living in Tampa, Florida. By day he works as a roofer while at night, as Magic Mike, he is the star attraction of the Kings of Tampa, a group of male strippers.
Mike’s looking to quit the exotic dance game to start his own custom furniture design business, but he’s constantly unable to secure a bank loan. One night Adam (Alex Pettyfer), a teenaged workmate of Mike, follows him to the club and, when one of the acts is unable to go on, he is prevailed upon to strip; becoming a huge hit. However success goes to his head and his foolish actions not only threaten to jeopardize his sister Brooke’s (Cody Horn) relationship with Mike, but also Mike’s ambitions as well.
The movie, which also featured the likes of Matthew McConaughey, Matt Bomer and Joe Manganiello, was a big success, earning more than $167 million worldwide from a $7 million budget.
Tatum and several of the cast (plus writer Reid Carolin, who appears in the original and is Tatum’s producing partner) returned for 2015’s ‘Magic Mike XXL’ in which a retired Mike agrees to help his old friends put on one last show, as the crew embark on a road trip to Myrtle Beach to perform at an exotic dance convention.
Soderbergh skipped that one, leaving the directorial duties to Gregory Jacobs. And though it still made money, it looked like that might be the last of the ‘Mike’ movies.
Yet after Tatum, Reid and some of the producers launched a wildly successful live stage version of the stripping show, all involved realized they might want to come back for a final round of oiled-up dancing.
“As soon as I saw what Channing, [writer ]Reid [Carolin], and the ‘Magic Mike’ choreographic team did with the live show, I said we have to make another movie,” Soderbergh commented when announcing the third movie. “Mike Lane’s dream of connecting people through dance must be realized!”
‘Magic Mike’s Last Dance’ sees Soderbergh once more calling the shots. Not much is known about the story, but we can certainly expect Tatum taking some of his clothes off – as seen in the first look image of Hayek admiring his abs with her hand.
Hayek was a replacement for Thandiwe Newton, who scored one of the main roles, but left the movie after shooting started. Viewpoints differ as to why, but the official story is that she returned home to deal with a family matter.
Still, Tatum is confident that the new movie will still impress us all. “We’re gonna go big. I mean truly, we’re not gonna leave anything on the bench. We’re taking it out, we’re putting it on stage, it’s gonna be wild,” he told ‘Entertainment Tonight’. “I was like, ‘Why are we going to make a third one if not just go really, really, really for the stars?’”
‘Magic Mike’s Last Dance’ will be in cinemas on February 10th.
