Life imitated art Sunday when a daring group of thieves made like George Clooney and the Ocean’s Eleven crew and heisted millions of dollars in jewels from Paris’ Louvre Museum.
Count Danny Ocean himself among those who were impressed with the jewel robbery the world can’t stop talking about. Asked about the elaborate heist and its resemblance to something from one of his movies, Ocean’s franchise star Clooney had the perfect response (via Variety/X):
It was cool. I mean, it’s terrible. But if you’re a professional thief like I am, I was very proud of those guys.
Clooney wondered aloud if authorities will ever catch the thieves, who remain at large as of this publication. “They seem to have done a pretty good job of getting away with it,” he admitted.
“It’s crazy,” Clooney said of the daring daylight robbery, adding, “It is pretty funny because it really was like [an Ocean’s movie].”
It’s been seven years since the last entry in the Ocean’s franchise, but things are finally rolling on a new sequel reuniting Clooney with series stalwarts Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, and Matt Damon, as Clooney himself confirmed earlier in October (via E!):
We just got the budget approved at Warner Brothers. It’s just scheduling, so it’s just getting a start date for us. We’ll probably start [shooting] in about nine or ten months.
Clooney previously teased an Ocean’s 14 story that would see the original crew struggling with age-related challenges. David Leitch has signed on to direct the new franchise entry, after Steven Soderbergh directed the first three movies in the series, and Gary Ross helmed the 2018 all-female reboot Ocean’s Eight.
Clooney’s Danny Ocean seemed to have died after his grave was seen in Ocean’s Eight, but he’s obviously still alive, and will presumably be back to his old, thieving ways in the new sequel. It’s not known if any of Ocean’s Eight‘s female characters will appear in Ocean’s Fourteen.
An untitled Ocean’s prequel movie is also in development, with Margot Robbie portraying the mother of Clooney’s Danny Ocean, and Bradley Cooper reported to be circling the role of Ocean’s father after Ryan Gosling dropped out.
A remake of the 1960s Rat Pack hang-out flick, the first of Clooney and Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven films revived the heist movie genre when it grossed $450 million worldwide back in 2001. Ocean’s Twelve and Ocean’s Thirteen both topped the $300 million mark themselves, while Ocean’s Eight just missed the mark, grossing $297 million.
As he prepares to play Danny Ocean one more time, Clooney is set to release the ensemble coming-of-age movie Jay Kelly, directed by Noah Baumbach, and co-starring Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup, Riley Keough, Eve Hewson, Greta Gerwig, and many more.
Jay Kelly premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Golden Lion, and will hit Netflix on December 5 after a limited release in theaters.
There has been no word lately about the status of the possible Ocean’s Eleven/Magic Mike crossover that was teased by Clooney and Soderbergh at the 2023 Toronto Film Festival. It’s possible they were not serious when they proposed the unlikely mash-up film.
- Cast
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George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Julia Roberts, Don Cheadle, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Elliott Gould, Bernie Mac, Eddie Jemison, Carl Reiner, Qin Shaobo, Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Rihanna
- Movie(s)
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Ocean’s Eleven, Ocean’s Twelve, Ocean’s Thirteen, Ocean’s Eight
- Character(s)
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Danny Ocean, Rusty Ryan, Linus Caldwell, Terry Benedict, Tess Ocean, Basher Tarr, Virgil Malloy, Turk Malloy, Reuben Tishkoff, Livingston Dell, Saul Bloom, Yen (Ocean’s), Deborah Ocean, Lou Miller, Rose Weil, Daphne Kluger, Nine Ball