It looks as if Ghostbusters and Road House aren’t the only franchises to be getting an a gender swap remake. We can now add the caper film Ocean’s Eleven to the growing list.
Indiewire is reporting that George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh, the star and director of the Ocean’s trilogy, are developing a new version of the story of a group of con artists and thieves who simultaneously rob a number of Las Vegas casinos and that Clooney’s Gravity co-star Sandra Bullock is attached to play the lead role that Clooney played in the 2001 version of the film and its two sequels. Hunger Games director Gary Ross is set to perform similar duties here. Jerry Weintraub, the producer on the Soderbergh/Clooney Ocean’s films was also involved in this reboot until has passing earlier this year. Queen & Country screenwriter Olivia Milch is currently working on the script.
Fun fact – The role of a political campaign advisor that Bullock plays in Our Brand Is Crisis which is opening this weekend was originally written for Clooney, so this new project wouldn’t be the first time that she followed in Clooney’s footsteps.
Although there hasn’t been much word on the film floating around, IndieWire states that they first got wind of the project last year buried in an email unearthed during the Sony Pictures hack in which Sony president Amy Pascal instructed her development group to accelerate work on director Paul Feig’s female-led Ghostbusters reboot, lest this project beat them into theaters. No worry about that, though, as Ross still has to finish up work on the Matthew McConaughey historic thriller The Free State Of Jones, which is set for a May 13, 2016, release before he can turn his full attentions to this.
IndieWire reports that no one has confirmed anything, which is fairly understandable. The plot is under wraps, of course, though IndieWire states that their sources suggest that Clooney’s Danny Ocean character could cameo. In that case, I guess that could make this project a spinoff more-so than a remake or reboot. Could Bullock’s character be Danny Ocean’s sister or cousin? I guess we’ll find out in due time.
In the meantime, I suppose we’ll probably hear moans and complaints from some of the same sectors of the internet who raised a fuss over the Ghostbusters and Road House female-led remakes because, well, it’s the internet. Personally, I think it’s a great idea. Remember that the Ocean’s films weren’t just George Clooney-starring vehicles, but great ensemble pieces, and that means lots of spots to highlight female actresses which is never a bad thing.
