At the end of 2025, Adam drives revealed that he had been working with Director Steven Soderbergh on a “Star Wars”film titled”The Hunt for Ben Solo.” The film would have featured his character, Ben Solo, who was introduced as the son of Han Solo and Princess Leia in 2015’s “The Force Awakens.” However, he died at the end of 2019’s “The Rise of Skywalker.” Still, Driver felt he had unfinished business with the character and spent a few years developing a script with Soderbergh, who was set to direct. Unfortunately, Driver says Disney executives didn’t understand how Ben Solo could still be alive and shut down the project. Although he was disappointed that his film did not materialize, Soderbergh has since revealed that the canceled project enabled him to pursue his own passion project.
On June 20, Soderbergh released his app “Production 02074” on the Apple Store and is currently working on an Android version. The app is a collection of Steven Spielberg’s 1975 blockbuster “Jaws” and all the work that went into making the film.
While talking to Deadline about his new app, Soderbergh revealed that he saw “Jaws” over 30 times in theaters, and the app is a love letter to one of the most groundbreaking films of all time. The app features images as Spielberg shot them, along with observations and anecdotes provided by Spielberg himself. The app costs $24.99 and all proceeds go to an animal charity.
Soderbergh was able to finish the project because ‘The Hunt for Ben Solo’ was cut
During the conversation, Soderbergh admitted, “If Star Wars had gone forward, this would not have been completed.”
He revealed that his plan to go from a coffee table book to an app started directly after then Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy called him to tell him they weren’t moving forward with Driver’s “Star Wars” movie.
“This was an immediate extension of that not happening. I started several writing projects, both to see if I could generate material to go and make as a film, but also just to keep myself busy,” he said. “And literally as soon as we got the call, ‘This is not happening,’ I was like, ‘OK, it’s time to really sit down and get serious about finishing this.’ Had I gone out and made that movie, this thing wouldn’t have been done.”
Soderbergh says everyone has since ‘moved on’ from the project
Earlier this year, Adam Driver got great reviews for his work on James Gray’s “Paper Tiger” at the Cannes Film Festival. It is just one of many projects that the actor has lined up in the near future.
Soderbergh admitted that while the decision to cancel the film was “confusing,” he admitted, “everyone just moved on immediately.”
“I don’t burn a lot of calories on sh-t I can’t control,” he explained. “There’s no benefit to it. And as soon as Kathy (Kennedy) called and said, ‘It’s not happening,’ I was like, ‘OK, go ahead. I’ve got to go to work’.”
Did Steven Soderbergh throw any shade at Disney?
Elsewhere in the interview, they talked about the difficulty of reconciling academic and financial expectations with a director’s vision. Soderbergh noted, “My answer is, ‘Well, what do you expect? Why would you expect them to have the vision that you have? If they did, they’d be doing what you’re doing.'”
“I don’t expect enlightened visionary responses from the people who pay for movies. It’s a nice surprise when you’re dealing with a studio or an executive who gets it and completely sees what you’re trying to do and is completely supportive and supports you in every request you make. But I don’t expect that to be standard,” Soderbergh said.
He didn’t name any particular studio or executive, but some fans can’t help but wonder if Soderbergh’s comment was directed at Disney for shutting down his “Star Wars” movies or at the industry in general.
Soderbergh emphasizes that you don’t “think about things you can’t control”
Elsewhere in the interview, Soderbergh made another possible pass at Disney when he said he’d “rather encourage a filmmaker to be prepared that sometimes people don’t understand what you’re trying to do and don’t see it until they see it.”
“It doesn’t mean you can’t trust people. It just means you don’t expect everyone to feel about it the way you feel about it. Otherwise, you’re going to be very disappointed,” he continued.
But he went on to say that “frustration is not an active state,” adding, “You have to keep yourself in an active state and do things, not just think about things you can’t control or that are too late to change. You have to understand that you have a limited amount of real estate in your brain to give to what you’re doing. You have to be relentless about being a relentless version of the ultimate help. thing.”
‘Megalopolis’ also starred Adam Driver
During the interview Deadline brought up Francis Ford Coppola’s self-financed “Megalopolis” as an example of someone who didn’t want to regret making their finished project true to their vision. Ironically, the 2024 film also starred Adam Driver.
Soderbergh used the example to encourage aspiring filmmakers to “be someone who finishes things” because “finishing something that’s okay but not great is better than not finishing something that could have been great.”
“I’m a real stickler for it, and this is an example, 19 years essentially from start to finish on this project. If I decide to start, it will be done,” he continued. “It may not be perfect, but I can’t think of a single project that I’ve assigned myself, or that someone has assigned to me, that I haven’t completed.”
“Production 02074” is currently available on the Apple Store, with an Android version expected in the coming weeks.
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