'Ocean's Eight' sneak peek: Are gender-flipping reboots helping to balance Hollywood?
Loading...
Movie fans got a sneak peek into "Ocean's Eight" in a star-studded subway shot from the upcoming聽all-female reboot of the popular "Ocean's" heist films.
The film, the latest in a series inspired by the 1960 blockbuster "Ocean's Eleven" starring Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, has generated both excitement and skepticism as Hollywood tests out gender-flipping remakes as a means to expand the roles available to women in film by casting them in tried-and-true storylines.
鈥淥cean鈥檚 Eight鈥 may remind movie fans of the 2016 鈥淕hostbusters鈥 movie, which, like 鈥淥cean鈥檚,鈥 took a box office hit and remade it with female characters. While some fans have embraced the idea of gender-based reboots for showing that women can carry action films as their male counterparts, others have criticized the tactic as too formulaic.
Prior to the release of the 鈥淕hostbusters鈥 reboot, starring Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon, 聽wrote:聽 鈥淭he pop-culture landscape that we live in, where every vintage recognizable property is destined for endless remakes/reboots/resurrections/regurgitations, has become a barren echo chamber. The only way we鈥檙e going to keep it from delving further into the realm of diminishing returns is some sense of variation, even if it鈥檚 still of the coloring-within-the-lines variety, and a gesture as small as recasting four traditionally male roles with more-than-worthy females does indeed add a welcome sense of frisson.鈥澛
贬辞飞别惫别谤,听聽wrote of movies including 鈥淕hostbusters鈥 and the new 鈥淥cean鈥檚,鈥 鈥淚t鈥檚 true that women are massively under-represented in film 鈥 But this trend for rebooting old classics with male roles re-written for women is too much of an easy cop-out. It doesn鈥檛 address the deep-rooted problems behind how women are presented on our screens, and skips over the challenge of creating original, interesting characters and storylines that reflect the female experience.鈥澛
The female 鈥淕hostbusters鈥 remake sparked a massive backlash, with a trailer for the movie becoming the most-disliked trailer on YouTube at the time. The movie was viewed as a financial letdown.
贬辞飞别惫别谤,听聽says those who expressed their displeasure with the 鈥淕hostbusters鈥 remake may not entirely be responsible for the disappointing box office. 鈥淎 bloated budget, failure to secure a Chinese release, and sequel ennui also seem to have wreaked havoc on this ghostly romp,鈥 she wrote.聽
The story could be different for 鈥淥cean鈥檚鈥 if international box office and interest in the property are more promising. It may be helpful that "Ocean's" is already a series. Some moviegoers attending "Ghostbusters" were disappointed to find that that the film was a remake rather than a sequel. The Sinatra-Martin classic "Ocean's Eleven" has already been remade with George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon. But "Ocean's Twelve" and "Ocean's Thirteen" have carried have set the stage 鈥 and whet audiences' appetites 鈥 for successive variations on the theme.
Still, we don't know much about what to expect from Ocean's Eight, so critics and movie fans are latching onto photos like the one tweeted Monday by Rihanna, offering the first glimpse of the eight-women criminal team, played by聽Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Rihanna,聽Mindy Kaling,聽Awkwafina, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway,聽and Sarah Paulson.
"Ocean's Eight" is slated for a summer 2018 release.