"Look, we're never gonna be as cool as those guys," Clooney says. "That's their thing, man. That's why that movie was successful because of that."
Thus Clooney's misgivings when he was first approached about the idea of reinventing OCEAN'S, director Lewis Milestone's loosely constructed, tongue-in-cheek tale of a dashing ne'er-do-well named Danny Ocean who recruits a crew of 11 ex-Army buddies with the daring idea of ripping off five Vegas gambling dens at the same time. After all, what group of modern actors wouldn't suffer in comparison to the original kings of hip in the film that brought them together on the big screen for the first time?
"The thing A fuming Terry knows something is up, even if he doesn't know Saul is in on the action. © 2001 Warner Bros.is, I love those guys - those guys are heroes of mine," Clooney gushes about the Rat Packers. "If you ever look at those tapes of them when they were in Chicago doing a benefit or in Vegas at the Sands, they're just the funniest guys in the world. I'd sit and watch them drink a beer - they're just the coolest guys ever. When they first said, 'You want to do OCEAN'S ELEVEN?' I was like, 'I don't know... I don't want to sort of get caught in that. But once we started the movie and it was such a great script, we never looked back at that. We never once said, 'Oh, this is sort of like Frank and Sammy and Dino.' That never really existed. This was a whole movie unto itself."
Indeed, aside from the title and the basic hook, Ted Griffin's updated screenplay thoroughly reworks the idea, jettisoning nearly all of the other original characters and inventing a new robbery scenario that acknowledges the advancements in high-tech security systems that have taken place in the past four decades. (Other story updates dictated by changing times and the demands of narrative economy: The 11 are no longer war veterans, and the five casinos targeted in the original have been cut down to a more manageable three.)
Joining Clooney in a production that rivals the original OCEAN'S in raw star power are Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle and historic funnyman Carl Reiner as members of the heist team, along with Andy Garcia as the Mob-connected owner of the casinos they plan to hit. Oh, yes and there's also a little-known actress named Julia Roberts as the woman both Clooney and Garcia's characters are willing to fight for.
For Damon, who plays a pickpocket recruited as the team's least-experienced member, the result is a complete "re-imagining" of the original OCEAN'S.
"What it has in common with the old one is it's called OCEAN'S ELEVEN, that Danny Ocean gets 11 people together to knock over more than one casino, but that's about it," Damon says. "The Glo paint on the door doesn't really fly anymore."
Like Clooney, Danny and Rusty are cool as they set up the heist, in OCEAN'S ELEVEN. © 2001 Warner Bros.Damon admits to initially having been somewhat leery of the inevitable comparisons to the Rat Pack and their version of the tale.
"That movie had so much of their charm," Damon says. "If you enjoyed that movie it was because it was fun to watch them being them and knowing that they had a fun time making it. But we needed more than that going into this one. The script had to be a little tighter..."
"Just a little bit tighter," cracks Garcia.
"I mean, the stories from that one are that sometimes one of them didn't show up, so [supporting actor] Henry Silva got their lines," says Damon.
Among those sold on the project by Griffin's new script was Clooney's OUT OF SIGHT director Steven Soderbergh, the hottest helmer in the land in the wake of his dual Oscar-winning hits ERIN BROCKOVICH and TRAFFIC. While it was always Soderbergh's intention to make a completely different film - Milestone's loose-jointed original isn't a storytelling masterpiece by any standard the director did fondly remember "the obvious camaraderie amongst the members of the Rat Pack," he says. "That really along with the premise and the title was what I thought we should try and emulate. Not in the literal sense, because all those people were entertainers in addition to being actors, and that's a different type of performer. But their obvious generosity toward each other, I thought, was really infectious, so we tried to cast very carefully to make sure that that sense was there."
From the beginning, Clooney and Soderbergh (partnered since last year in a production company called Section Eight) figured the only way to do the film was to pack it with major stars. The famously affable Clooney began making calls, agreeing to take less than his usual salary in order to get the picture green-lit.
"This thing Five members of OCEAN'S ELEVEN. © 2001 Warner Bros.came together because of George," says Jerry Weintraub, who produced both the new and 1960 versions of the film. "We got the script done, sent it over to George and Steven, and it didn't take 24 hours before they both came back and said, 'We're gonna do this.' And George says to me: 'This has to be an ensemble piece. We've got to get all big stars in this movie. And we'll never be able to afford everybody, so I'll take a cut and I won't ask for any kind of perks except [the salary] I get.'"
"Except there's no proof that George took a salary cut," jokes Pitt.
With Roberts signing on en route to her Oscar for Soderbergh's ERIN BROCKOVICH, the film quickly got a predictably huge industry buzz going. Which explains the presence of major leading men like Pitt and Damon in supporting roles, while up-and-coming young actors such as Casey Affleck and Scott Caan had to content themselves with what amounted to bit parts.
Sound like stunt casting? You bet it was.
"See, that's the idea," Soderbergh says. "The idea was if you stunt-casted every role, then you would sort of neutralize [the stunt-casting effect]."
Regarding the size of his part, Damon says it doesn't make any difference to him if he's playing second or third banana as long as the movie is one he won't have to be ashamed of later.
"At the Tess knows Danny Ocean's line very well in OCEAN'S ELEVEN. © 2001 Warner Bros.end of the day, I want to look at the movies I did when I'm older - look back at all the titles on a sheet of paper - and be proud of them," he says. "And this is one of those movies where the script was really tight, the stuff was really well-written by Ted Griffin... and Steven Soderbergh was directing, so it really wasn't rocket science to say, for any of us, let's be part of an ensemble. It's gonna be a good movie. It's gonna be fun, it's gonna be entertaining, it's gonna be special and we'll be proud of it when we're done."
"There are certain movies you'd do for scale, and this [is] one of them," Garcia says. "So we got overpaid."
"You owe me some money then!" retorts producer Weintraub.
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