A new Ocean’s Eleven film is in the works, and has apparently been so since 2014, according to a report by The Playlist. The project, which will be produced by George Clooney who starred in Steven Soderbergh‘s 2001 trilogy of remakes, is expected to attach Hunger Games and Pleasantville director Gary Ross.
An initial script has been drafted by Little Women‘s Olivia Milch, and did I happen to mention, the film will have an all-female cast of leads! With Sandra Bullock already set to star, this looks to be a project to watch as more talented actors join what will surely be a prestigious cast. This will be the third incarnation of the Ocean’s Eleven narrative, with Soderbergh‘s forming a contemporary riff off the original 1960 heist caper featuring Ratpack members Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop. The films follow a band of charismatic bank robbers taking on a nigh-impossible job, and, well, I hate to give you spoilers but they usually get away with it too.
The all-female reboot is a great move forward in the action genre – a section of cinema often reserved for male actors – and comes hot on the heels of Paul Feig‘s 2016 Ghostbusters remake, which also gender-swaps its protagonists. With Feig bravely rebuffing waves of misogynistic criticism from fans of the original films, it feels like gender equality still faces substantial resistance from an uninformed male viewership.
This month has seen female actors vocalising the hardships they have faced receiving unequal pay and a dramatically less diverse range of roles. Bullock has already shown she can more than hold her own in an action environment with the buddy cop comedy The Heat, and Alfonso Cuarón‘s 2013 tense thriller Gravity, which also starred George Clooney.
Let’s hope we get more news on this project soon; my wishlist currently includes Amy Schumer, Melissa McCarthy, and Amy Poehler. We can all dream…
#Peace.Love.Ocean’sEleven
