'Oceans 14' Is In the Works With Roberts, Pitt, Damon and Cheadle To Return (According To George Clooney)
(Variety) George Clooney recently told E! News that “Ocean’s 14” is likely going to film next year with original franchise stars Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Don Cheadle expected to return. The Oscar winner first teased there was a “great” script for “Ocean’s 14” in 2023. Variety reported at the start of this year that “The Fall Guy” and “Bullet Train” filmmaker David Leitch was boarding the crime caper sequel to direct.
“We just got the budget approved at Warner Bros. and we’re trying to set up,” Clooney now confirmed. “It’s just scheduling, so it’s just setting a start date for us. Probably start in about nine or 10 months, shooting.”
When asked if he is excited to reunite with Brad Pitt once again on the big screen, Clooney answered: “Yeah, Brad [Pitt], Matt [Damon] and Don [Cheadle] and Julia [Roberts]. I had dinner last night with Julia. They’re all still really dear friends. And so, the chance to work together would be fun.”
I have a few hesitations on this.
1. Every Oceans movies after the original got progressively worse. That is without even including 'Oceans 8' as part of the main franchise.
2. Replacing Soderbergh with David Leitch is not great. I'm not sure anyone in the 2000s has managed to make not one, but multiple amazing heist movies between 'Oceans 11' and 'Logan Lucky'. I like Leitch's work and I'm sure you can make some comps to the success and lose similarities to 'Bullet Train', but this doesn't really feel like it's in his wheelhouse. Big action set pieces? Sure. Smooth, sexy capers? I don't know.
3. Bernie Mac and Carl Reiner have obviously passed and not everyone will return, so there are a lot of spots to fill. I'm not sure that I totally trust Leitch to cast the right type of people for this movie.
Ultimately, I come back to what I said with Heat 2 yesterday. As long as they are making this because there is a great script and not because they want to pay off a new house, I'm in. Clooney is still as smooth as ever, Pitt has been aging even better and I'd love to see this whole crew reunited. Another question this raises, though, is what happened to the prequel?
Back in 2022, it was announced that Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie were going to play Danny Ocean's parents in a prequel set in 1960's Europe. To me, that is far more interesting than a potential late sequel cash grab. ESPECIALLY after how great they were as a duo in Barbie.