Steven Soderbergh's long-awaited film based on the later years of the famously extravagant pianist will star Michael Douglas in the lead role and Matt Damon as his young lover, Scott Thorson.

In the summer of 2009, a er losing the first fight of her career, Gina Carano, a professional mixed martial artist, considered throwing in the towel. But at her agent’s insistence, the 29-year-old Texan agreed to meet with a director named Steven Soderbergh. “I had a black eye, and I didn’t want to see anyone,” she says. “Especially not a director who, I’m embarrassed to say, I hadn’t heard of before. He wanted to make a movie based on a female action person—‘star’ feels too weird to say—who would make these Hollywood stage fights look believable.”

● Joe Jackson has elected himself the new King of Media and demands Kanye West be banned from all award shows and show business in general; it’s what Michael would have wanted. [PopCrunch] ● Barack Obama called Kanye West a "jackass" for his Taylor Swift stunt during a (not so) off-the-record interview with CNBC on Monday. [HuffingtonPost] ● Matt Damon will play Michael Douglas’ lover in the Steven Soderbergh-directed Liberace biopic. This is not a joke. [USAToday]

● To no one's surprise, Foxy Brown received "special treatment" while serving her prison sentence at Riker's; guards made sure she had plenty of clean clothes and TV time. [MSNBC] ● Members of the band Rooney will make a cameo in Sofia Coppola’s new film Somewhere; lead singer Robert Schwartzman just happens to be Sofia Coppola’s cousin. [Rooney] ● Bad news for Brad Pitt and Steven Soderbergh. Columbia head Amy Pascal cut loose their new film Moneyball, which was set to begin today in limited turnaround; they're looking for a new studio to fund and distribute the film. [Variety]

The ubiquitious, prolific director discusses his latest buzz-heavy project.

One perk of the Sundance Film Festival inundation is that, insofar as every random event is a random PR opportunity, pretty much everything is somehow sponsored. This means various things, but at 8 a.m. it means breakfast and coffee and a panel discussion with Steven Soderbergh, thanks to IFC. Apparently IFC now has its own obscure Comcast On-Demand sub-labyrinth (see: long-winded in-panel explanation/demonstration and photographic navigation handout ... on how to use your TV) where they will show six new films that have premiered at major festivals. These are essentially the same flicks IFC is barely showing in theaters. Really, these are good movies -- like Soderbergh’s two-part roadhouse marathon Che, starring Beni-cheo Del Toro -- and it’s not exactly IFC’s fault that mega-conglomerate theatres aren’t ultra-receptive to films with titles like (the admittedly Golden Globe nominated) Gomorrah. Go figure.

Filmmaker Steven Soderbergh sat down with BlackBook previous to the release of his newest film, the four-hour two-part epic CHE!, about the life of Argentine revolutionary Che Guavara. The film is open in limited release right now, will be opening in more locations over the next two weeks, and is going to be made available On Demand come January 21. It's pretty fitting that -- like CHE! -- our interview with Soderbergh was long, epic, and eventually had to be spliced into two parts; the first is here. Below, Soderbergh discusses his plans for revolution, his work with Sasha Grey, and why petty crimes deserve totally draconian punishments.

The director of 'Che' on changing the world