Channing Tatum. (REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni)

Actor Channing Tatum is considering stepping behind the camera to direct a planned sequel to his male stripper movie Magic Mike.

The star recently revealed he was developing a follow-up to the raunchy film, which was inspired by his own real-life experiences as a male dancer in Florida, and the Hollywood hunk is keen to take full charge of the project after serving as producer on the first instalment with his business partner Reid Carolin.

He tells Vulture.com, "We've thought about directing Magic Mike 2, and we're still thinking about it, and we want to do that.

"We want to do the sequel. It's too good of a movie, and the characters are so crazy, that we want to go for it. We feel like we did the little indie version this last time, and for the next one, we want to up the stakes a little, maybe go even farther."

Tatum admits he only began thinking about directing the follow-up because Steven Soderbergh, who took charge of the sexy summer hit, has since retired from filmmaking.

He says, "It's weird to think about the movie without Soderbergh, but he's gone. He's definitely retired. He's like in Hawaii right now. I could look at how he uses the camera, how he sets up shots, how he makes his decisions, but at the end of the day, it's really how he sees the world, and we'll never be able to copy Soderbergh. No one can."

But the actor has no intention of rushing into Magic Mike 2 - because he wants to make his directorial debut with a smaller, less high-profile project.

He adds, "Reid and I aren't idiots! We're not going to direct our first movie as a sequel to a Steven Soderbergh movie. That's not smart. I want to start with something very small... make a lot of mistakes, make them real early, and then go jump in (on Magic Mike 2)."