Since Hollywood is incapable of coming up with new ideas, and gender-bending is the hot new way to shamelessly reboot a classic, no one should be surprised we’re getting an Ocean’s Eleven all-female spinoff.
According to Deadline Hollywood, Warner Bros has greenlit Oceans Eight, a film with the revolutionary premise of bringing together an elite team of thieves to pull off one last heist, except this time… without penises. Someone at the studio deserves a raise.
Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett are confirmed leads, and “deals are close” with Anne Hathaway, Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter, Mindy Kaling, and Awkwafina.
While the film flaunts its feminist cred with an all-female cast, it wasn’t feminist enough to hire a woman as a producer or director. Straight white males Steven Soderburg and The Hunger Games’ Gary Ross will produce and direct respectively.
But as the 2001 Ocean’s Eleven is just a remake of the terrible 1960 Rat Pack flick, the spinoff isn’t a huge deal. What will be a big deal? The YouTube comment gender war the film is sure to inspire.
I can see it now. Trolls on YouTube comment on the first trailer saying it looks like crap because of women. The media picks it up and we get 2,000 word think pieces on leading progressive news sites. Ocean’s Eleven fans who think the movie looks bad for non-gendered reasons get labelled misogynists. Both sides dig in their heels, one vowing to boycott, the other to see it four times. The movie comes out to middling reviews and mediocre box office receipts. Both sides declare victory and retreat to the trenches until the announcement of the all-female Reservoir Dogs.
There is already an online Backlash With #FeministAMovie Hashtag