By Andrew McCathie May 24, 2007, 15:42 GMT
Cannes, France - Brad Pitt returned Thursday to the Cannes Film Festival. This time along with Matt Damon, George Clooney and the other stars of Steven Soderbergh's slick crime sequel, Ocean's Thirteen.
U.S. actor George Clooney poses during a photocall for U.S. director Steven Soderbergh's film 'Ocean's Thirteen' running out of competition at the 60th Cannes Film Festival, 24 May 2007, in Cannes, France. EPA/DANIEL DEME
Earlier in the week, Pitt turned up at the festival for the screening of Michael Winterbottom's A Mighty Heart, in which his partner, Angelina Jolie starred and he acted as co-producer.
But while A Mighty Heart looks at the terrible events surrounding the death of Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, Ocean's Thirteen is the third in Soderbergh's light-hearted sequels about a stylish and smart conman gang.
This time, however, they are mounting their most ambitious and risky heist yet when they take revenge on a ruthless casino owner (Al Pacino) after he double crosses a friend of Danny Ocean, played by George Clooney.
Ocean Thirteen's brought a fresh blast of Hollywood glamour to Cannes with other stars of the movie including Ellen Barkin, Elliott Gould, Scott Cann, Andy Garcia and Don Cheadle turning up for the film's world premiere in Cannes.
Such star power created real buzz at Cannes for Ocean's Thirteen, even though it was not part of the line-up for the Palme d'Or prize with the cast and director joking and wise-cracking their way through a packed Cannes press conference.
'Why are we not in competition?' asked Clooney. 'We are going to win.
'The movie is an equal opportunity offender,' said Soderbergh when asked whether it offended the Chinese. 'I don't think anyone is left out.'
Rejecting suggestions that the movie created a negative picture of the Chinese, China-born Shaobo Qin, who played an acrobat in the film called Yen seemed to sum the mood among the cast and director: 'It is just entertainment.'
The job description for cast members was 'no jerks,' said Soderbergh.
'We had made a rule not to bring on anybody who had a reputation for being unpleasant,' he said.
Loosely based on the so-called rat pack movies of the 1950s and 1960s, which starred Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Ocean Thirteen is set in Las Vegas. Likewise, Ocean Thirteen is also set in Los Vegas.
'There is something compelling about that city,' said Soderbergh. 'As a social experiment it is fascinating. People feel they can go there and cut loose.'
Clooney, Pitt and other members of the Ocean's Thirteen cast have also sought to use both their visit to Cannes and the publicity surrounding the movie to try to heighten international concern about the crisis in Darfur.
'There is a life and death struggle happening now,' Clooney told the press conference.
Over the course of two nights in Cannes, the Ocean's Thirteen cast has reportedly raised more than nine million dollars for Darfur as part of the Not on Our Watch project, a Darfur relief organization.
As to whether there will another Ocean heist film, the cast were a little more divided than the comradeship their characters showed in the movie.
While Damon indicated he would be open to another sequel, Clooney was more sceptical.
'I think we have sapped this tree,' Clooney told the press conference in Cannes.
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