So what does the ever-prolific Steven Soderbergh have up next? He has the series “Full Circle” on deck as part of his overall deal with Max, and “The Pendulum Project,” which he also shot last year. However, after those shows, Soderbergh’s next project is wide open. So what about a return to a former franchise?
Or, as frequent Soderbergh leading man George Clooney joked earlier this week, how about a crossover between two former franchises? EW reports that Clooney suggested that the director sync up the “Ocean’s Eleven” series with the “Magic Mike” films for a new feature while Ben Mankiewicz interviewed the pair at the TCM Classic Film Festival. An “Ocean’s Mike” film? That sounds a little too offbeat, even for Soderbergh, but he and Clooney ran with the joke.
After Mankiewicz asked if it was possible to return to the “Ocean’s” franchise fifteen years after the premiere of “Ocean’s Thirteen,” Soderbergh responded that he talks about it frequently. But he also pointed out that 2018’s “Ocean’s Eight” resulted from talks like that. “They killed me, by the way,” added Clooney, referring to Sandra Bullock‘s Debbie Ocean, Danny Ocean’s sister, being the lead in that film. Debbie visits Danny’s grave regularly in the film, but Debbie often wonders if Danny is dead and if anyone is actually buried in his tomb. So it would be pretty easy for Clooney to reprise the role if he and Soderbergh hatch up a good idea.
But Clooney and Soderbergh kept up their banter about Danny’s demise. Soderbergh brought up the fact that the dates on Danny’s tomb take two years of Clooney’s age, to which the actor countered, “Sure, but I’m dead.” As for a straight answer about continuing the franchise, Soderbergh could only tease the audience: “I’m… thinking… about… tomorrow,” he joked.
But things got interesting once Clooney teased Soderbergh about focusing on the “Magic Mike” series instead. Soderbergh’s latest and seemingly final installment, “Magic Mike’s Last Dance,” hit theaters in February. Clooney suggested a movie that merges both franchises: “Ocean’s Mike?” he joked as he twirled around his microphone to mimic helicoptering a certain male body part. Mankiewicz then suggested “Magic Danny” as a title before alluding to the “Magic Mike Live” show and Las Vegas’ many strip clubs. Maybe there’s less distance between the two film series than meets the eye…
Nothing more came of the idea during the interview, but Clooney and Soderbergh talked plenty about their work together, which started on 1997’s “Out Of Sight.” Both director and actor referenced coming off of respective career disappointments for that project: 1995’s “The Underneath” for Soderbergh and “Batman & Robin” for Clooney. After “Out Of Sight” did well, Soderbergh caught wind of an “Ocean’s Eleven” script and thought of Clooney in the lead role. “It felt like the next iteration in my desire to work in the mainstream film business and make movies that could be released in a lot of theaters,” Soderbergh explained. “I grew up watching movies made by great filmmakers that were commercially successful, distinctive movies. And I wanted to be part of that tradition.”
Clooney also liked the idea of making a movie with a New Hollywood sensibility with Soderbergh. “It’s also important to understand where we were at the time,” added the actor. “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.”
Of course, “Ocean’s Eleven” is one of Soderbergh’s most lauded films now. But Soderbergh struggled initially in filming about how he wanted it to look visually. “The first portion of the film, we shot in chronological order, and you can watch me figure it out,” Soderbergh said. “The first week, week and a half, I still felt not dialed in. Then we got to this sequence, the planning sequence that takes place at Reuben’s [Elliott Gould] house. We were on set laying out this thing, and it was a 27-millimeter lens at a certain angle with a certain comp. That’s the default composition for the whole film. I had the zoom lens in my pocket, which I hadn’t used yet in the film, but I knew I wanted to use a zoom lens a lot. And I had a great script and I had a great cast.”
“Ocean’s Eleven” was a major hit for Soderbergh, and helped further the launch the superstardom of Clooney and other members of the “Ocean’s” ensemble like Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Andy Garcia, and more. In fact, Clooney confirmed that Soderbergh had other actors in mind to play Damon’s Linus, but they turned down the role. “Some very famous people told us to f— right off,” Clooney said. “Mark Wahlberg, Johnny Depp. There were others. They regret it now. I regret doing f*cking “Batman.”“
But now the question remains: will Clooney and Soderbergh regret never getting the “Ocean’s” band back together for one last heist? Never say never, but Soderbergh’s current trend of mid-budget flicks/series for Max doesn’t bode well for an “Ocean’s” sequel any time soon. But the director’s career is so singular because he’s so full of surprises, so don’t count out him returning to an old franchise. As for an “Ocean’s”/”Magic Mike” crossover, that may be too big of an ask; but it’s fun to joke about.
