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OCEAN'S 11 - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
-How much is this production costing due to the high number of big-budget stars in it?
The exact figure has been confirmed at $91 million by producer Jerry Weintraub. Also, Steven Soderbergh spoke thus in Premiere... "Our whole deal was, "Remember those Irwin Allen [producer of The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno, et al.] movies with 15 stars-wouldn't that be cool?" There's only one way to do it: Come up with a formula that everybody adheres to. And the bottom line is, nobody's getting what they normally get, up-front [salary] or in the back-end [share of the revenues]. The studio said, "This is how much back-end you can have." It's a slice of a certain size, and we all said great. It was led by George, and Brad [Pitt] and Julia [Roberts] said, "We're in."
-Is this a straight remake of the Sinatra original?
No, there are certainly very strong similarities (all-star cast, glitzy locations etc) but straight remakes are always a bit pointless in my humble opinion (i.e. Psycho). Soderbergh has stated the following in Premiere magazine again on the general approach he will be taking... "In movies, the formal choice has to be appropriate to the material. I'm trying to sort out now how much of that feeling I can bring to a movie like Ocean's Eleven, which is very stylized. You derive a certain pleasure from the artificiality of watching a big caper movie with a bunch of movie stars. And I need to be careful not to subvert it needlessly and piss the audience off, because they want to be entertained. [But by the same token] you have to resist the impulse that when you have a movie of a certain size with certain people in it, you must execute it in a way that is consistent with how those movies are normally done."
Producer Jerry Weintraub also stated..."It's 'Ocean's Eleven' but different. Everyone involved has seen the film but the script's different, characters different. George has Frank's role, but Pitt and Damon play completely different kinds of characters. And there's lots of jokes. Ours is a popcorn movie. Hard not to enjoy. It's a sting ... but very elegant. No cars get blown up."
-Is there going to filming in Seattle and/or Monte Carlo?
No, these locations were apparently in early script drafts (Monte Carlo perhaps being a substitute for Vegas)
-What happened to Alan Arkin?
He withdrew from filming at a late stage due to personal reasons and was replaced with some haste by Carl Reiner.
-Can you get me a role as an extra or on the production team?
Unfortunately not. Filming has stopped since I was asked this
-What does EEE-O Eleven stand for?
A theory put forward on US public radio is that "E" looks like a six on dice. "O" looks like a five. 6+5=11 (i.e. there's a gambling theme) Thanks to Doug Alberg for this info
-Is the original 1960 movie available on DVD?
Studios have a habit of releasing originals at about the same time the "remake" hits the cinemas. The 1960 movie was released by Warners in January (just when remake hype was significant). It's got a commentary by Steven Soderbergh on one track, and Frank Sinatra Jr & Angie Dickinson on another track. You can order it at www.amazon.com by clicking here The movie is also available on VHS in the US and Canada. Click on the link on the front page of this site if you want to purchase it at Amazon.com. The video is currently available in the UK (exclusive to HMV) as part of a limited edition Rat Pack box set packaged with the VHS for "Robin and The Seven Hoods" and a copy of Shaun Levy's "Rat Pack Confidential" book for £16.99. It also occasionally appears on satellite channels such as Sky Cinema. It was available on laserdisc for a short while in the US (2.35:1 ratio, NTSC, 3 sides, 127 minutes, color, digital mono, CLV)
-Where can I get a poster for the original movie?
A variety of memorabilia appears on www.ebay.com but a lot of it is reprints etc. You can also get tacky looking tin signs and clocks which are copies of the Italian "Colpo Grosso" poster but with English translation of the title back to "Ocean's 11". Here's some approximate values for original items (be very very wary of poster and lobby card reprints)...
US 27"x41" one-sheet poster - $800 upwards
US 22"x28" half-sheet poster - $600 upwards
US 11"x14" lobby cards - $30 to $100 each with the group portrait being most valuable (card #8)
Belgian small poster - $50-ish - A lot of these seem to be re-releases or reprints
-Where can I get a poster for the new movie?
Again your best bet is www.ebay.com - The advance US one-sheet (showing feet, a big red 11, and the release date), and the regular US one-sheet (mainly red with small figures and bits of sun-glare) are available widely there at the moment. The International poster (which shows Clooney, Pitt, Damon and Roberts walking down a street in Vegas) will turn up in greater numbers once the movie gets outside the US
-Why isn't Don Cheadle credited anywhere?
Again this is just my theory but it may be that instead of being 5th or 6th billed, he'd rather just be there incognito. It's also a surprise if you didn't know he was in the movie
-Whats all this about a Boesky, Jim Brown and the biggest Ella Fitzgerald ever?
Clearly it's got something to do with the different skills that each gang member has, although I'm still puzzled as to which is which. I can guess that a "Miss Daisy" is a driver as in "Driving Miss Daisy". If anyone's got any other ideas let me know and I'll put them here
The following theory has been submitted...
I agree with your thinking that a "Miss Daisy" is a driver, after "Driving Miss Daisy", but in the movie the drivers are Virgil and Turk Malloy (Casey Affleck, Scott Caan) and this makes me think that they are actually the Jethros (because they come from Utah and they aren't exactly the brightest guys ever - aka Jethro from the Beverly Hillbillies). I also suspect that the Boesky is Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould) after Ivan Boesky, disgraced Wall Street inside trader. Tishkoff, like Boesky knew the insides and workings of a casino, and had plenty of money to sink into pulling off the heist. I'm also thinking that the Leon Spinks is Basher Tarr (Don Cheadle) after Leon Spinks the [African American] boxer who defeated Mohammed Ali. Basher is the one who delivers the "knockout punch" with the electromagnetic pulse generator that takes out the city's power supply. We already know that the Grease Man is The Incredible Yen (Shaobo Qin), because Ocean and Ryan say it when they are scoping him out. Still working on the others; Jim Brown (I'm thinking James Brown), and Ella Fitzgerald interestingly both being singer/songwriters." Thanks to Jay Cooper for the above
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-Have you really been asked all these questions?Yes, including this one
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