Section Eight Productions

Section Eight Productions

Company type	Production company
Industry	Entertainment
Predecessor	Maysville Pictures
Founded	December 1999;25 years ago (1999-12)
Founders	George Clooney Steven Soderbergh
Defunct	2006;19 years ago (2006)
Fate	Defunct
Successor	Smokehouse Pictures
Key people	Jennifer Fox Gregory Jacobs Ben Cosgrove

Section Eight Productions, or just Section Eight, was an American film production company founded in late 1999 by film director Steven Soderbergh and actor/director George Clooney, following the success of the film Out of Sight . ^[1]

The company's predecessors was Mirador Entertainment, with partner Deborah Leoni (joined July 1996) and Maysville Pictures (formerly Left Bank Productions) with partner Robert Lawrence, both of these were formed in 1996, and also founded by George Clooney. When the company formed, the company signed a deal with Warner Bros. Pictures, and took the exiting Maysville staff with them, including Ben Cosgrove, who was with Maysville before Section Eight was formed. ^{[2] [3]}

It produced the critical hits Far from Heaven , Insomnia , Syriana , ^[4] A Scanner Darkly and Michael Clayton , as well as Clooney-directed films Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Good Night, and Good Luck . ^[4] In 2005, Syriana and Good Night, and Good Luck picked up eight Oscars nominations between them.

In 2003, the company set up a television division, led by Grant Heslov. ^[5]

With Soderbergh citing a desire to focus on directing, and Clooney forming production company Smokehouse Pictures with Grant Heslov, the two decided to shut down Section Eight at the end of 2006. ^[4]

Films

Year	Film	Director	Notes
2001	Ocean's Eleven [4]	Steven Soderbergh	Remake of Ocean's Eleven (1960)
2002	Insomnia	Christopher Nolan	Remake of Insomnia (1997)
	Welcome to Collinwood	Anthony Russo Joe Russo
	Confessions of a Dangerous Mind	George Clooney
	Full Frontal	Steven Soderbergh
	Far from Heaven	Todd Haynes
2004	Criminal	Gregory Jacobs	Remake of Nine Queens (2000)
	Ocean's Twelve	Steven Soderbergh
2005	The Jacket	John Maybury
	Good Night, and Good Luck [4]	George Clooney
	Syriana	Stephen Gaghan
	Rumor Has It...	Rob Reiner
2006	A Scanner Darkly	Richard Linklater
	The Good German	Steven Soderbergh
2007	Wind Chill	Gregory Jacobs
	Ocean's Thirteen	Steven Soderbergh
	Michael Clayton	Tony Gilroy
2009	The Informant!	Steven Soderbergh

Notes and references

1. Stone, Rob (April 10, 2018). The Cinema of Richard Linklater: Walk, Don't Run. Columbia University Press. p. 13. ISBN   978-0-231-85124-4.
2. McDonald, Paul (May 2, 2019). George Clooney. Bloomsbury Publishing (published May 2, 2019). ISBN   9781911239321.
3. Cox, Dan (August 5, 1998). "Maysville will add 3 exex to expand bill". Variety. Retrieved May 9, 2025.
4. McLean, Thomas J. (October 13, 2006). "Section Eight goes up in Smoke". Variety . Retrieved August 29, 2021.
5. Schneider, Michael (July 31, 2003). "Section Eight musters deal with WBTV". Variety. Retrieved May 2, 2025.

External links

• New York Times, January 18, 2005: Trying to Combine Art and Box Office in Hollywood — article about Section Eight, Clooney, & Soderbergh.