Steven Soderbergh almost didn’t make “Black Bag.”

When he and “Jurassic Park” writer David Koepp first began collaborating, Koepp brought Soderbergh a handful of ideas. One of those was “Black Bag.” Soderbergh didn’t spark to the concept, instead choosing to focus on “Presence,” a ghost story that premiered at Sundance in 2024 and was released by Neon earlier this year.

Soderbergh said that he still encouraged Koepp to write it. “It was more of a case of, Dude, just write it. My immediate interest was more in seeing him get it done than it being something that I could then direct,” Soderbergh told TheWrap during a wide-ranging interview that touched on everything from the making of “Black Bag” to the difficulty of getting adult dramas in theaters to why he’s not directing the next “Ocean’s” movie.

When the screenwriter finally did write “Black Bag” and sent it to Soderbergh,...