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‘Ocean’s Eleven’ All-Female Spinoff Prevents ‘Ghostbusters’-Like Gender-Swap Backlash

By Erika Miranda
Published on: 15:29 PST, Aug 11, 2016

The Ocean’s Eleven all-female reboot is trying to avoid the kind of gender-swap backlash that Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters saw as soon as the heist movie received a go from Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Pictures has just revealed the cast of the all-female heist film Ocean’s Ocho and the internet is already speculating what could happen especially after Sony’s massive loss with the gender-swap reboot of the Ghostbusters.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the new addition to the Ocean’s franchise will feature critically-acclaimed stars like Cate Blanchett, Sandra Bullock, and Anne Hathaway as well as Helena Bonham Carter, Mindy Kaling, Rihanna, and Awkwafina.

Of course, people did not immediately jump into the idea of having eight women doing a heist at New York’s Metropolitan Museum with some questioning the very existence of gender-bender movies in the first place.

Others even pointed out some gender equality issues, particularly the fact that Warner only plans to hook up eight women to recreate the epic adventure movie Ocean’s Eleven that is composed of 11 Hollywood hunks.

Meanwhile, E! News feels that it is a bit unfair for women to only get reboots instead of their original movies.

“Just imagine what that would be like! Instead of just reusing old all-male material for today’s female actors, think what the world could be like if writers and directors were making brand new movies for women.”

The outlet also believes that the remarks about films that focus on male and female actors can become quite disappointing, adding that it would have been better “if movies were simply made to be movies” regardless of which gender dominates the cast.

But despite all these, many are still interested about the film and are even excited to see who the eighth member of the Ocean’s Eleven all-female reboot would be.

No plot details have been released for the film yet, but it is sure to have the same exciting ambience as that of the heist film Ocean’s Eleven starring George Clooney.

What is interesting though is that Warner Bros. appears to be avoiding the kind of financial loss Sony experienced with their own gender-bender, signified by the $80 million difference between the two movies’ budgets.

In a more recent report from THR, it was revealed that Ocean’s Ocho will only have a $70 million budget compared to the $150 million production cost used to create an all-female version of Ghostbusters.

'Ghostbusters' Cast and Director
[Photo by Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images]
Sony and Village Roadshow had to endure a $70 million loss from the 2016 remake of Ghostbusters that stars top caliber comediennes Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones. This may be why many are hesitant to embrace Ocean’s Ocho.

However, it may also be possible that the significantly lower budget of the Ocean’s Eleven all-female reboot is due to fact that the heist film requires less special effects, compared to Ghostbusters.

But while there is very high risk rate that Warner Bros. is taking by giving the go on the Ocean’s Eleven all-female flick, the studio intends to succeed in overcoming it especially since the trend of gender benders are beginning to captivate moviegoers.

The Ocean’s Eleven all-female spinoff will be directed by Hunger Games helmer Gary Ross, with Susan Ekins executive producing. Ocean’s Eleven director Steven Soderbergh is also expected to be involved in the production of the film, which is set to begin this October.

[Photos by Pascal Le Segretain, Jamie McCarthy, Frazer Harrison, John Phillips, David Becker, Alberto E. Rodriguez, Noam Galai/Getty Images]

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