George Clooney on “Ocean’s” series
These Hollywood stars didn’t feel like it
George Clooney talks about the ‘Ocean’s’ film series at the TCM Classic Film Festival.
© Charley Gallay/Getty Images for TCM
The “Ocean’s” film series is a meeting place for superstars. According to George Clooney, there were also famous actors who didn’t want to.
Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Brad Pitt, Al Pacino, Catherine Zeta Jones, Julia Roberts – and of course George Clooney (61). The “Ocean’s” film series is also considered an absolute cult because of the top-class cast. But some superstars from Hollywood apparently did not want to take part in the project. The main actor Clooney and director Steven Soderbergh (60) said according to “Entertainment Weekly” now at the TCM Classic Film Festival. Above all, the first part of the series, “Ocean’s Eleven” from 2001, was honored there.
During a panel discussion, Clooney said: “Some very famous people told us to fuck off. Mark Wahlberg, Johnny Depp. But there were others.” However, they would now regret it. Just as he regrets making that “damn Batman,” Clooney joked. The two also talked about the idea of why Soderbergh did the remake of the 1960s classic “Frankie and his cronies” with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Co. Accordingly, the director wanted to combine indie films with mainstream Hollywood.
What’s next for the “Ocean’s” film series?
Clooney took those present at the festival into the considerations at the time: “It’s important to understand where we were at the time. The studios were making big, broad, not very good films at that time.” That’s why the idea came up to bring unconventional young filmmakers into the studios: “It was about going back to the things they did from 1964 to 1975.”
‘Ocean’s Eleven’ was a huge hit and was directly sequeled into the films ‘Ocean’s 12’ (2004) and ‘Ocean’s 13’ (2007). An offshoot with a star cast followed with “Ocean’s 8” (2018). In May 2022 it was announced that a prequel to the film series with Margot Robbie (32) and Ryan Gosling (42) is in the works, which is set to take place in Europe in the 1960s. There are also rumors that Soderbergh is working on another sequel to the main series. In an interview with “People” magazine, Matt Damon (52) already publicly expressed interest in an “Ocean’s 14”.