With all due respect to Danny Ocean, there’s no thief in Hollywood with a more impressive track record than “creative differences.” Take Margot Robbie’s planned Ocean’s Eleven prequel movie, which has just had Oscar-nominated Minari director Lee Isaac Chung heisted out from under it. The culprit? You guessed it.
Admittedly, this particular instance of cinematic loggerheads is being phrased in the most amicable terms possible, as Robbie’s Lucky Chap production company issued a statement today, with Warner Bros., in which the two companies bent over backwards to make nice: “Lee Isaac is a singular filmmaking talent whose vision and partnership have been invaluable to Warner Bros. and LuckyChap throughout this journey. Our experience with him has only deepened our enthusiasm to collaborate on future projects together.” THR reported the split; no details have cropped up about where the disagreements between Chung and producers popped up.
For those keeping track, Chung came to the project while already pretty far down the “very personal critical darling to unlikely blockbuster” pipeline, having previously directed Glenn Powell, Daisy-Edgar Jones, and wind in 2024’s Twisters, as well as episodes of Star Wars shows The Mandalorian and Skeleton Crew. He was originally attached to the Ocean’s project last year, signing on for an untitled prequel film originally created under the watchful eye of Robbie’s old Bombshell director Jay Roach. With his departure, we go from knowing roughly three things about this film down to two: We may still hold firmly to the knowledge that Robbie is expected to both produce and star in the movie, and that she’s recruited Bradley Cooper to be part of her team. Beyond that, we don’t even have a number—let alone a director—to attach to the Ocean’s title, which, whenever it actually comes out, will be the first such movie to hit theaters since Sandra Bullock attempted a reboot (of sorts) with Ocean’s 8 back in 2018.
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