George Clooney will be back with another “Ocean’s” heist film, the actor confirmed.
Clooney told Uproxx while promoting “The Boys in the Boat,” which he directed, that there is a script in the works for a fourth “Ocean’s” film set after the events of 2007 movie “Ocean’s 13.” The film concluded Steven Soderbergh’s crime comedy trilogy at the time, and later led to 2018 spin-off “Ocean’s 8” starring Sandra Bullock as the sister of Clooney’s (presumed dead) character.
“We have a really good script for another ‘Ocean’s’ now, so we may end up doing another one,” Clooney said. “It’s actually a great script.”
Clooney added that the film won’t be called “Ocean’s 14,” saying, “Well … I don’t want to call it that … I mean, the idea is kind of like ‘Going in Style.’”
The reference is to 1979 heist comedy “Going In Style,” directed by Martin Brest. The film was remade by Zach Braff in 2017 with Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and Alan Arkin starring as three senior citizens who plan a theft.
The “Ocean’s” films, themselves based on the 1960 Rat Pack movie, starred Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Casey Affleck, Elliott Gould, Julia Roberts, and more, in addition to Clooney. The trilogy kicked off in 2001 with “Ocean’s 11,” followed by 2004’s “Ocean’s 12,” and 2007’s “Ocean’s 13.”
A prequel film is separately in the works starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. The Jay Roach-directed movie is set in 1960s Europe, and allegedly centers around the birth of Clooney’s character.
Clooney told Variety, “Margot Robbie’s my mother? I’ve always thought that. And Ryan Gosling is my father, and when you think about it, it makes sense. Truly.”
Clooney previously revealed during the 2023 TCM Classic Film Festival alongside “Ocean’s 11” director Soderbergh that Johnny Depp and Mark Wahlberg both turned down appearing in the ensemble franchise. As reported by Variety at the time, Depp was considered for the role of Linus Caldwell before Mark Wahlberg was later cast; Wahlberg parted ways with the film to lead Tim Burton’s “Planet of the Apes” remake instead. Matt Damon was then cast in the role.
“Steven had just done ‘Erin Brockovich’ and ‘Traffic, ‘and he was nominated for directing both films. So, people really wanted to work with Steven,” Clooney said during the event, via Entertainment Weekly. “Some very famous people told us to fuck right off: Mark Wahlberg, Johnny Depp. There were others. They regret it now. I regret doing fucking ‘Batman.’”
Clooney continued, “It’s also important to understand where we were at the time. The studios were making very big, broad, not very good films at that time. Steven had this idea of trying to infuse all of this independent film stuff that all of these young filmmakers were learning back into the studio system. It was going to get back to the things that they were doing from like 1964 to 1975.”
