Last decade, George Clooney's Danny Ocean led a gang of talented thieves and cone men on three different heists across the Ocean's movies, but for 2018, it's a different member of the Ocean family leading the charge. For the upcoming Ocean's 8, Danny's sister Debbie, played by Sandra Bullock, will recruit her own team of criminals to pull off a daring jewel heist at the Met Gala, bringing the same comedic tone as its predecessors, but with an all-new cast. However, as Bullock and costar Cate Blanchett acknowledged, early on they had doubts that this movie would ever actually get made. As Bullock and Blanchett explained:
Sandra Bullock: I honestly didn't think it would happen. I thought it was a fun idea ... I didn't at the time think the movie would get made.Cate Blanchett: Two or three years ago this seemed like an impossibility, like how could you possibly get this made? And it's so great that it's being released now. We go, 'Well, of course.' A lot has shifted I think.
Following the release of Ocean's Thirteen in 2007, George Clooney and director Steven Soderbergh made it clear that an Ocean's Fourteen would not be made, mainly because they wanted to go out on a high note, although Bernie Mac, one of the main cast members, passed away in 2008. So for a while, it seemed as if the Ocean's series would just be a trilogy, but then came word in 2015 that an all-female spinoff was in the works, and the year after, what we now know as Ocean's 8 assembled its main cast. But as Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett said at the recent Ocean's 8 press conference in New York that CinemaBlend attended, even they were skeptical that the spinoff would see the light of day. Director and co-writer Gary Ross also acknowledged that not only had there ever been an all women-led ensemble of this scale before, but it also took time hooking these actresses in and convincing Warner Bros to put its weight behind the movie. As Ross put it:
I realized that there'd never been this kind of ensemble (there had been a lot of male versions of this), this kind of kick ass ensemble of women coming together like this before and I thought that was easy. And then we went to Sandy [Bullock], and Sandy said, 'Well, if the script doesn't suck and you actually get these people that you hope to get, then I might interested.' Which we took as an absolute yes. Then we went through the very long process of trying to get the movie made that really took three or four years.
Along with Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett, Ocean's 8 main lineup includes Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Helena Bonham Carter, Rihanna and Awkwafina, while the rest of the cast will feature Richard Ermitage, James Corden, Dakota Fanning and Damian Young, as well as plenty of celebrity cameos. Assuming the spinoff does well critically and commercially, then perhaps like with the previous Ocean's movies, we'll see more unique heists being pulled off by these ladies on the big screen.
Ocean's 8 will be released in theaters on June 8. If you're interested in finding out what other movies are coming out this year, browse through our 2018 release schedule.
