Steven Soderbergh downplays retirement rumours

Steven Soderbergh has downplayed rumours about his suggested retirement from filmmaking.

In December 2010, Soderbergh's Contagion star Matt Damon claimed that the director was making plans to quit the film industry entirely by 2012.

However, Soderbergh has said that despite feeling "bored" by the industry, he has not yet decided to officially retire.

"Matt Damon is about as discreet as a 14-year-old girl," Soderbergh told Entertainment Weekly. "I had this drunken conversation with him in Chicago shooting Contagion."

The director said that he had been surprised to read about his supposed retirement days later in the newspapers, but insisted that he wasn't entirely serious about the decision.

"i was just sort of going off," Soderbergh explained. "No one wants to hear about someone quitting a good job [in the current climate].

"It got blown out of proportion. That's Matt's fault!"

Soderbergh is currently working on two new film projects, Liberace starring Michael Douglas, and espionage remake The Man from U.N.C.L.E. starring George Clooney.

Watch the trailer for Steven Soderbergh's upcoming thriller Haywire below: