As the Venice Film Festival has highlighted some late 2024 movies to mark down on the calendar, the dark comedy Wolfs continues to pick up steam. The on-screen reunion of George Clooney and Brad Pitt might just leave Ocean’s Eleven fans wanting another follow-up to one of the best 2000s movies to finally take shape. A powerful new rumor suggests that Ocean’s Fourteen may be in the works, with a potential new director that has me wondering if I’m on board for the return of Danny Ocean and his merry band of thieves.
Ocean’s 14’s New Director Has Me Questioning This Next Sequel
With all due respect to the news coming out of Deadline’s latest reporting on this potential Ocean’s sequel, the potential hiring of director Edward Berger leaves me uncertain. And that’s not because I doubt his skills as a helmer, as the man’s work on both Netflix’s All Quiet on the Western Front and the upcoming Vatican thriller Conclave suggest a steady hand behind the camera.
However, as a tried and true Ocean’s Eleven fan, it’s the absence of original director Steven Soderbergh that gives me pause. Through three solid entries into the lexicon of cool, the trilogy that started with a reinterpretation of the Rat Pack classic Ocean’s 11 was uniquely his.
But as if that wasn’t sad enough, Don Cheadle’s recent Ocean’s Fourteen story reminded me of Bernie Mac’s untimely death, which was the stumbling block that prevented a third sequel from happening in the past. Not to mention that Carl Reiner's 2020 passing leaves yet another position to be filled in the lineup.
And yet, with my doubts firmly on the table, I’m actually up for keeping an open mind on another Ocean’s caper. Just as it may seem easy to come up with a case against, there's some angles that make it a bit easier to anticipate this potential legacy-quel with positive anticipation.
Why I’m Keeping An Open Mind For The Moment
Returning to the subject of Edward Berger’s rumored directing gig with Ocean’s Fourteen, his hiring is also a reason to celebrate. That much is true thanks to the recently released trailer for Conclave, which looks like a pot-boiling mystery that has my name written all over it. While I’ve seen neither it nor All Quiet on the Western Front past the trailers associated with their releases, I can confidently say that Mr. Berger’s command of color and image in dramas such as these is quite crisp.
Also, let’s not forget that Steven Soderbergh was able to shift genres pretty adeptly himself. It wasn’t just the Ocean’s Trilogy and Out of Sight that made his name notable, as dramas and thrillers like sex, lies, and videotape and Side Effects are just as noteworthy in stretching the man’s filmmaking muscles.
But perhaps the one overriding factor that really has me excited is that the important Ocean’s Fourteen condition Matt Damon specified may have been met: the presence of a good script to make it all worthwhile. Apparently that’s been in the cards since last fall, as a George Clooney interview with Uproxx saw The Boys in the Boat director claiming that “a really good script for another Ocean’s” was already in hand.
Ok, ok, so maybe I’m more open to an Ocean’s Fourteen than I thought I was. I mean, I’m still pretty jazzed about that still-in-development Ocean’s Eleven prequel starring Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie. Though who knows if that will still happen if this new sequel happens to take off?
If you want to revisit the world of the Ocean’s Trilogy, then check in with your Hulu subscription, as that’s the current streaming home for those three tales of thievery. But don’t forget to head out to see Wolfs, which will be in theaters for one week starting September 20th. For more on why you should keep that film in mind, check out our Wolfs review, written by yours truly.
