Edward Berger has so many projects on his plate right now that he’s giving the equally prolific Luca Guadagnino a run for his money. It’s come to the point where Berger has had to drop a few, including an “Ocean’s 14” sequel that would have brought the whole cast back together.
Speaking to Deadline, Berger put it pretty bluntly: yes, he flirted with the idea of directing “Ocean’s 14.” He admits he was seduced, but then Berger sobered up. Slept eight hours after the brutal “Ballad of a Small Player” shoot, and the clarity hit: it’s not his movie. The “Ocean’s” films belong to Steven Soderbergh.
Deep down inside I knew it’s not my movie, it’s Steven Soderbergh’s movie. He invented that, beautifully. He made them, and I’m just following in his footsteps. What is new for me? I love those movies, but in essence, I don’t know what to add to what the great Steven Soderbergh did.
Berger confesses that after a few good nights’ sleep following ‘Ballad of a Small Player,’ he called Brad Pitt and broke the bad news to him: he was dropping it.
I went to bed, slept eight hours, and realized, it’s not me. I called Brad because we had talked a bunch of times. I knew he was open to doing something, and I basically said, I’m sorry, I don’t want to do Ocean’s and hope I haven’t offended you. But I have this great script that I would love you to look at because I think it might be a challenge for both of us […] He read it in two days and called back and said, I want to do it. It’s the best script I ever read.
That script turned out to be “The Riders,” which will be both Berger and Pitt’s next film. A24 is onboard and an early 2026 shoot has already been set up.
Regardless, Berger is right to acknowledge it — Soderbergh popularized that breezy, hyper-stylized Vegas-caper aesthetic with his Ocean’s movies. He shot them with his fingerprints all over the frames. What, really, could Berger add beyond mimicry? It’s Soderbergh’s sandbox.
Berger did the rare honest thing in an industry built on taking jobs for money. He recognized the DNA of Ocean’s is pure Soderbergh, and without him at the helm, you’re just doing cover versions.
The Ocean’s franchise doesn’t need a new director. It already has one. Then again, Soderbergh himself confirmed that he will definitely not be returning for “Ocean’s 14.” He claimed, justly so, that the series has “been there and done that” and that there was nothing left for him to add:
After we made the third movie, I felt like the series was very much concluded for me. When the studio approached me to see if I’d be involved in continuing the franchise, I told them no, because it just doesn’t feel like a move forward for me […] I’m chasing something else.
George Clooney actually wrote the script for “Ocean’s 14.” He seems to be the brains behind the operation to revive this franchise. However, the search is still on for a director. Why doesn’t Clooney just direct the damn thing?
Of course, we all know the rule: take these reactions with a grain of salt rather than treating them as gospel. Still, I will say that the film tested like gangbusters earlier this year, and Lionsgate clearly has confidence.