Saturday, March 24, 2007

Ocean's 13 And The High End Call Girls

Stephen Soderbergh is, as ever, very busy.

Right now, he's in post on Ocean's 13, ahead of it's Cannes premiere (keep reading for some exciting stuff about that one in a few paragraphs) and he's already started shooting one of his two Che Guevera films - and now he's announced another project. This one is about 'high-end call girls' and is going to star non-actors who, very possibly, will be real 'high-end call girls'.

In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Soderbergh admitted that Bubble only just recouped it's costs. Many have blamed it's daring day-and-date release scheme - in cinemas, on DVD, on cable TV all within a four day period. Only the Landmark chain of cinemas dare show it, so really, the blame lies with the other cinema chains, but they're not the most humble of corporations. There's no way to get them to admit Bubble was a better choice than a fourth week of Munich or Grandma's Boy. The hooker film is going to follow the same release pattern, and I imagine that the cinema chains will wuss out just like before.

Okay - about Ocean's 13. Don Cheadle has mentioned in recent interviews that this threequel will be the end of the line for his character, Basher. If that's true, there's no indication in the script. In fact - spoiler alert! - the entire gang walk away intact, with nothing to suggest they won't be coming back. There's no hook for a sequel, and the last shot does feel like a fitting conclusion (though it doesn't feature any of Danny's gang at all) but the door is certainly still open.

I've read two scripts for Ocean's 13 now, and they were very, very similar. If you ask me, they were also very, very charming. The whole thing has a kind of swining, zippy tone and there's character dripping off of every page.

Of course it's all quite silly and frothy too, but that didn't harm Eleven or Twelve, did it?

We'll be getting up close and personal with the Ocean's 13 script soon, giving you a good look at the set-up, some of the dialogue and my favourite character moments - including why a new character known only as The VUP - as opposed to VIP - is going to steal the show.

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1 comment:

Mark Kardwell said...

Don Cheadle. Great actor, bad accent.