Film director Steven Soderbergh, who started out with sex, lies and videotape and then moved on to make Hollywood blockbusters such as Ocean’s Eleven … and Twelve, and Thirteen … is perhaps getting back to his indie roots. He says he'll direct Channing Tatum in a movie inspired by the actor's real-life experiences as a 19-year-old stripper. Tatum, 31, will play the title character in Magic Mike, who befriends a younger dancer and teaches him “how to hustle on and off the stage,” according to Deadline.com.

“When Channing talked to me about this, I thought it was one of the best ideas I'd ever heard for a movie,” Soderbergh said in a statement. “I said I wanted in immediately. It's sexy, funny and shocking. We're using Saturday Night Fever as our model, so hopefully we're on the right track.”

Tatum has had the idea for the film for a while, but now that he has Soderbergh aboard, it looks like the project will get off the ground. It’ll be fun to see what the market is for a movie about a young male stripper, we think …