Who will direct the “Ocean’s Eleven” prequel over at Warner Bros. now that Lee Isaac Chung dropped out of the assignment? As it turns out, it may be one of the movie’s leads.
READ MORE: Lee Isaac Chung Exits ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ Prequel Over “Creative Differences”
Puck’s Matt Belloni reports that Bradley Cooper will step in to direct himself and Margot Robbie in the long-gestating project. The current plan is to shoot the film this summer. If Cooper does direct the movie, it’ll be his follow-up to “Is This Thing On?,” which bowed in theaters last December. Compared to his previous two features, “A Star Is Born” and “Maestro,” Cooper’s recent comedy was a more low-key affair. A new “Ocean’s” movie would also fit that mold, albeit with a higher budget: a general crowd-pleaser with next to no Oscar ambitions.
As for who else may join Cooper and Robbie in the prequel’s ensemble, it really could be anyone. Part of that sense of infinite possibility for the cast comes in how long it’s taken for Warner Bros. to get the project off the ground. It was first announced in May 2022, with Jay Roach to direct and Robbie producing via LuckyChap, but then delays forced Roach to bow out. Ryan Gosling initially had the male lead opposite Robbie, then he bowed out, and conceded it to Cooper. The film then looked like it was moving forward again last summer when Chung signed on to direct, only for him to drop out last week due to “creative differences.”
Now, it’s Cooper’s project, and his choice to direct feels like a deliberate pivot away from the auteurist aspirations of “Maestro.” And is that such a bad thing? All of “Ocean’s” films, even the clunky “Ocean’s 8” from 2018 (which Steven Soderbergh did not direct), are a joy to watch: they’re breezy, colorful, and clever heist pictures with the charming underlying fantasy of a complicated plan with myriad moving parts operating like clockwork. Cooper would be wise not to mimic Soderbergh too much in his prequel, but a genre exercise like this could be just what the actor-director needs to fine-tune his style behind the camera. And given that it’s set in 1960s Europe, the focus on period details and costumes could be another great filmmaking lesson for Cooper.
Let’s see if Cooper has indeed agreed to helm this prequel, though. If he does, he’ll direct a script by Carrie Solomon, who’s coming off the 2024 Netflix film “A Family Affair,” with plans to start production in Monaco this summer.
