In late 2025, Adam Driver revealed that he had been working with director Steven Soderbergh on a “Star Wars” film that was 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 passed away at the end of 2019’s “The Rise of Skywalker.” Even so, 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 execs didn’t understand how Ben Solo could still be alive and shut down the project. Although he was disappointed that his film didn’t come to fruition, 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 compilation of Steven Spielberg’s 1975 blockbuster hit “Jaws” and all the work that went into making the movie.
While speaking 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 includes images as Spielberg shot them, along with observations and anecdotes provided by Spielberg himself. The app costs $24.99, with all proceeds going to an animal charity.
Soderbergh Was Able To Finish The Project Because ‘The Hunt for Ben Solo’ Got Axed
During the conversation, Soderbergh admitted, “If Star Wars had gone forward, this wouldn’t have gotten finished.”
He revealed that his plan to transition from a coffee table book to an app started directly after then-Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy called him to tell him that they were not moving forward with Driver’s “Star Wars” film.
“This was in the immediate aftermath of that not happening. I started in on multiple writing projects, to both see if I could generate material to go and make as movies but also just to keep myself occupied,” he said. “And literally, as soon as we got the call, ‘This is not happening,’ I thought, ‘OK, it’s time to really sit down and get serious about finishing this thing.’ Had I gone off and made that movie, this thing would not have gotten done.”
Soderbergh Says That Everyone Has Since ‘Moved On’ From The Project
Earlier this year, Adam Driver got rave reviews for his work on James Gray’s “Paper Tiger” at the Cannes Film Festival. It’s only one of many projects that the actor has lined up in the near future.
Soderbergh admitted that although the decision to cancel the film was “baffling,” he confessed, “Everybody just immediately moved on.”
“I don’t burn a lot of calories on sh-t I can’t control,” he explained. “There’s no upside to that. And so as soon as Kathy [Kennedy] called and said, ‘It’s not happening,’ I was like, ‘OK, moving on. I got to go to work.’”
Did Steven Soderbergh Throw Some Shade At Disney?
Elsewhere in the interview, they talked about the difficulty of reconciling studio and financial expectations with a director’s vision. Soderbergh noted, “My response 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 that pay for movies. It’s a nice surprise when you are dealing with a studio or an executive that gets it and totally sees what you’re trying to do, and is totally supportive and backs you in whatever request you make. But I don’t expect that as the default,” Soderbergh said.
He didn’t mention any studio or executive in particular, but some fans can’t help but wonder if Soderbergh’s comment was directed at Disney for shutting down his “Star Wars” film, or at the industry in general.
Soderbergh Emphasizes Not ‘Mulling Over Stuff You Can’t Control’
Elsewhere in the interview, Soderbergh made another possible pass at Disney when he said that he “would rather encourage a filmmaker to be prepared for people to not understand at times what you’re trying to do, and not see it until they see it.”
“That doesn’t mean you can’t trust people. It just means, don’t expect everybody to feel about it the way you feel about it. Or you’re going to be disappointed a lot,” he continued.
However, he went on to say that “disappointment is not an active state,” adding, “You need to keep yourself in an active state and be doing things, not just kind of mulling over stuff that you can’t control, or that is too late to change. You have to understand that you have a finite amount of real estate in your brain to give to whatever you’re making. You need to be ruthless about excluding noise that doesn’t ultimately help you make a better version of the 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 have any regrets about making their completed project true to their vision. Ironically, the 2024 film also starred Adam Driver in the main role.
Soderbergh used the example to encourage aspiring filmmakers to “be somebody 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 about that, and this is an example, 19 years essentially from beginning to end on this project. If I decide to start, it’s going to get done,” he continued. “It may not be perfect, but I can’t think of a single project that I have assigned to myself or that somebody has assigned to me that I have not completed.”
“Production 02074” is currently available on the Apple Store, with an Android version expected in the coming weeks.
