Nobody working in the film business today has the same style as Steven Soderbergh and few are anywhere near as versatile. One minute, he's working on grim and horrifying dramas that tackle troubling real-world issues like the war on drugs (Traffic) and the potential for a global epidemic (Contagion); the next, he's directing another lightweight entry in the Ocean's Eleven series or a peculiar true-story comedy like The Informant!.

2012 won't be any different for Soderbergh. His first release of the year, Haywire, is a high-octane, stylized female secret agent action flick; thereafter, he'll release Magic Mike, a movie about male strippers that the director says is far more comical and naturalistic in its structure.

Magic Mike was scripted by indie writer/producer Reid Carolin, who drew inspiration from star Channing Tatum's own real-life experience working as a man whose finely-sculpted physique is also his livelihood. While the R-Rated film won't feature any full frontal nudity (a la Michael Fassbender in Shame) it will feature plenty of handsome male Hollywood hunks wearing little to nothing, including stars like former Sexiest Man Alive Matthew McConaughey and True Blood's Joe Manganiello.

Get a better look at some of the stars of Magic Mike by perusing through the two new images below (if you dare):

magic mike movie image channing tatum
magic mike channing tatum alex pettyfer

Co-star Matt Bomer (Chuck, White Collar) previously spoke to Collider about Magic Mike and said it revolves around a Boogie Nights-style coming-of-age narrative about a young stripper known as "The Kid" (I Am Number Four's Alex Pettyfer) who is mentored by a veteran named Mike Martingago (Tatum). Boogie Nights was of course directed by P.T. Anderson, a onetime protege of the late filmmaking legend, Robert Altman.

It makes all the more sense, then, that Soderbergh would compare Magic Mike to the latter's work, as you'll note in the interview excerpt (via Cinema Blend) below:

"[Magic Mike is] a comedy. It's fun. It's a party. It's an Altman movie in that sense. It has the kind of feel. It's not like jokes, but the people are funny... There's no handheld [camerawork] in 'Magic Mike', but it's a little more choreographed than either of [my recent films]. There's more opportunity for movement. There are more scenes where there are multiple elements choreographed with the movement of the camera, it's a little more operatic."

An Altman-esque dramedy that examines risque subject matter in a visually-poetic fashion AND makes good use of people like McConaughey, Tatum, and Pettyfer - who are not exactly known for their stellar acting chops? Definitely sounds like another wonky Soderbergh experience that cinephiles might want to check out.

Magic Mike is slated to hit U.S. theaters on June 29th, 2012.

Source: Entertainment Weekly, Collider, Cinema Blend