Hi, Barbie! Hi, Ken! Let’s go rob a casino!
Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling are trading in their flashy “Barbie” fits for something sleeker as both will reportedly share the big screen once again in a prequel of the beloved heist film “Ocean’s 11.”
The film will be produced by Robbie’s production company, LuckyChap Entertainment, according to GamesRadar+, which confirmed the casting. Representatives for Robbie did not immediately respond to the L.A. Times’ requests for comment.
“They’re wonderful together — the more projects even outside of that we can have them do would be amazing,” producer and LuckyChap co-founder Josey McNamara said of Robbie and Gosling, when speaking with the video game publication last week during the opening night of the BFI London Film Festival, before a screening of the production company’s thriller “Saltburn.”
Filmmaker Jay Roach, known for “Austin Powers” and “Bombshell,” will helm the film as director, according to GamesRadar+. Little is known of the plot, but the film is expected to be set in 1960s Europe.
“I can’t really say much,” McNamara said of the “Ocean’s” flick, “but I think we’re just trying to do right by the franchise. I’m excited for people to experience it when it’s ready.”
The “Oceans” prequel follows LuckyChap’s successful summer having produced the record-breaking blockbuster hit “Barbie.” Yet with the SAG-AFTRA actors’ strike continuing, it is unclear when filming would begin. Following the deal between the Writer’s Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, ending their monthslong strike, the actors’ guild has returned to the bargaining table with the studios.
Robbie, her now-husband Tom Ackerley, Sophia Kerr and McNamara started LuckyChap together in 2014 with the goal of centering female characters and bridging the gender pay gap for female actors. The production company was also behind films “I, Tonya,” “Promising Young Woman” and “Birds of Prey,” and the limited-series “Maid.”
The most recent “Ocean’s” franchise release came in 2018 with “Ocean’s 8,” a spinoff of Steven Soderbergh’s trilogy. Unlike the George Clooney and Brad Pitt-led trilogy, the 2018 installment featured an ensemble cast of women, including Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Rihanna, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Helena Bonham Carter and Awkwafina. Soderbergh’s “Oceans 11” from 2001, was a remake of the 1960s Rat Pack film of the same name.
