Ocean 11 (1 Viewer)

[Chris Dugger]

Matt,

To answer your question....

That has been excised from the film and no reference is made.

Dugger

 

[MikeAW]

"Mike,

Please elaborate on the above statement. Otherwise, I have to vehemently disagree with your comments about Soderbergh's films deriving from non-original and already filmed sources.

Crawdaddy"

I am not familiar with his work, as I'm sure you seem to be, but a look at his film resume at All Movie Guide, shows to me that he has forsaken any claim to his past with his choice to go down a road that isn't exactly a career building one. In the real time present, that netherworld where one's past is only as recent as one's "last film", what he did three films ago just doesn't matter, and people don't really care about the whole ouvre of a filmmaker, just film scholars and fans.

Someone must have been really convincing to him, to make this choice to do another remake. What he does next will be interesting. But by now he's been already pegged by industry insiders as a sucker, and I'm sure you will read in an interview how he was offered a ton of remakes to produce. Remakes are very popular now in ALL consumer media outlets.

It's all up to him as to what he choses and what he wants to do with his career.

 

[Ryan Peter]

Mike, this is Soderbergh we are talking about. One of the most original and intelligent filmmakers there is. If you're not familiar with his previous work, I'm not sure how you presume to know so much about his future. Anyway, from what I understand, this is a very loose remake of Ocean's 11, and it looks excellent. Hell, the first one wasn't exactly holy material, it's a heist flick starring the rat pack.
You're being a bit over-reationary. And I'm not sure what you're talking about with regard to "the netherworld" (isn't that the desert place in "Beetlejuice"?).
Is Cameron Crowe now a hack because he did a shot-for-shot remake of a Spanish film that was released only a few years ago? I consider that remake a lot less imaginative than Ocean's 11.
If you did know Steven's history, you'd see he balances out his fun flicks with his more serious flicks. He's extremely versatile. More recently he did the very fun "Out of Sight" then came back with more somber and contemplative "The Limey", after that he did "Erin Brockovich", then balanced that with the very serious "Traffic" (which is an original film about a real problem). Now he's having some fun again with Ocean's 11. His next flick is supposed to be a very minimal (maybe Dogme?) and original movie.
Anyway, I consider Soderbergh to be one of the best filmmakers today (even though I didn't care all that much for "Traffic") and find his film resume to be very impressive. He seems to be one of the only filmmakers that carefully chooses what he works on and throws himself into the work. I think he spent something like 2 years researching "Traffic" and narco-traffic. His other films show wonderful attention to detail, I consider "The Limey" to be almost perfect.
If there's one filmmaker that can't be attacked for being less-than-original, it's Soderbergh. That's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

 

[Allen Hirsch]

Soderbergh has done some very original and creative work - so he gets cut some slack in my book if he wants to remake something. (Especially since the original Ocean's 11 wasn't exactly a masterpiece - it got most of its notoriety from featuring the Rat Pack, not because it was an incredible movie or story.)
I loved Out of Sight, which did very little box office, and The Limey was also very good, but not very "commercial".
Having said all that, it will be interesting to see what a director of Soderbergh's talents can do with such an outsized star cast (think of all the egos he's managing at once!! ).

 

[AdrianJ]

It looks like this is one of those Hollywood "you owe me a favor" movies, where a bunch of stars get together in one movie to help out a few stars who have had a string of bombs like Cloony, Brad Pitt

Not to take this thread too far off topic, but exactly which of George Clooney movies have bombed???

movies budget US Gross

O Brother, Where $26 million $45 million

Art Thou

Perfect Storm $120 million $181 million

Three Kings $48 million $61 million

Thin Red Line $52 million $36 million

Out of Sight $48 million $37 million

Peacemaker $50 million $41 million

Batman & Robin $110 million $107 million

One Fine Day ?? $45 million

From Dusk to Dawn $20 million $26 million

I wouldn't really call any of those bombs, except maybe a Thin Red Line and that is hardly Clooney's fault. Also, his bankability on movies has been going up in recent years and not down.

As for Brad Pitt, for a couple of his movies:

movies budget US Gross

The Mexican $40 million $67 million

Snatch $10 million $30 million

Fight Club $63 million $37 million

Meet Joe Blck $90 million $44 million

With Meet Joe Black being the only true bomb, and having since recovered with The Mexican and Snatch, I wouldn't say he is coming off a string of bombs either. (I think the problem with the Fight Club was the studio had no idea how to promote it. I'm sure it has made it's money back in DVD sales and foreign box office.)

 

[Allen Hirsch]

AdrianJ-

if those are production budgets (not "all in" costs, including marketing/distribution - which I'm guessing is the case, because Hollywood PR usually only lets the production budget numbers out for its movies), every movie you've listed bombed from a "Hollywood suit" perspective, except Perfect Storm, The Mexican, O Brother, and Snatch, and possibly Three Kings.

You'd have to add a significant percentage to those budget amounts for marketing/distribution costs - and most didn't even cover their production costs at the box office.

(Not to take this thread further afield, but Pitt also did Seven Years in Tibet the year before Joe Black, which I doubt made money. Before that, I don't think he was expected to "open" a film as the principal box office draw.)

 

[AdrianJ]

Allen,
Ah yes, they didn't cover total production cost, but that is just based on the American Box Office alone. That leaves out the substantial foreign box office and also the video/dvd market. And you would also have to add the toy market for a movie like Batman & Robin. I'd say most of these were profitable movies.
We'd have to define what a bomb is more closely, but I'd only think of a true bomb as something like Final Fantasy that didn't even recoup 1/3 of it's production costs.
To get back on track of this topic, I've been looking forward to Ocean's 11 ever since it was announced. I personally like Clooney in everything he has been in (except Batman & Robin, but that was hardly his fault!!) I think I might even sit down and watch the original tonight. I taped it off TCM a few months ago, but haven't had a chance to watch it.

 

[Allen Hirsch]

AdrianJ-

agreed, there's ancillary revenue - but I doubt the "suits" give the actors who are supposed to "open" movies, and get paid the big $$, much "credit" for the ancillary revenue - the stars are paid to "open" a film so that Hollywood makes money from the U.S. box office. That's precisely why nearly all movies are now marketed and opened as "events". Hollywood expects to get their U.S. box office take in a matter of weeks, not months - as another thread here just recently discussed.

Back on topic- I saw a "making of"/preview on HBO last night that really has me looking forward to seeing Ocean's 11. (I already figured I would see it because of Soderbergh, but now I'm intrigued by the movie and cast, too.)

I liked the emphasis Clooney puts on camaraderie and having fun on the set - it will be interesting to see how (or if) that comes through in the movie.

An article I read recently said that Clooney and Soderbergh have a production company together, formed after Out of Sight. With Soderbergh's last-year successes of Traffic and Brockovich, and Clooney's hit in Perfect Storm, they now are seeing many of the "hot" projects - and have the clout/track record to get most anything they want to do greenlighted - Ocean's 11 is sort of the first of that "pipeline".