Steven Soderbergh on ‘The Christophers’, ‘The Hunt for Ben Solo’ and his controversial AI comments: ‘It just doesn’t threaten me’

“The Christophers,” the story of an old painter (Ian McKellen) and the mysterious assistant (Michaela Coel) he hires to destroy some priceless works of his half-finished art, defies easy categorization. It’s funny and sad, straddling the line between a crime thriller and a character drama as it examines the precarious nature of talent. Why, the question goes, do some artists lose their creative spark?

“We didn’t really think about the genre,” says Steven Soderbergh, the film’s director. “Human behavior was our compass. The development of our characters as people determined the development of the film.”

Soderbergh sits huddled next to Ed Solomon, author of “The Christophers,” at a comically small desk in the Warren Street Hotel in Manhattan. The two have previously worked together on the noir thriller “No Sudden Move” and the twisty crime thrillers “Mosaic” and “Full Circle.” It’s the day before the premiere of “The Christophers,” their latest collaboration…