Ocean's 13

DL: 6th Avenue around 21st maybe?

BK: Yeah. And [we] just started talking about the notion of con movies, the nature of con movies. Not Scott Caan —

DL: Or James Caan.

BK: Jimmy Caan as they say — but C-O-N.

Premiere: Although all of the Ocean's films feature Scott Caan.

BK: They do. That's why I'm pointing out the distinction. [Chortling all around.] And we started talking about all that stuff, about the old David Maurer book, The Big Con, and about all the different movies relating to this world and to this genre. The lunch... didn't involve pitching or anything like that, we were just talking about ideas. And as we were walking toward the subway, Steven said, let's keep going on this. So, what did we spend, David? Couple months just kicking ideas back and forth with him?

DL: We did, yeah. We [did] a very lengthy outline, really detailed, like over 30 pages of outline. Part of the process that was pretty interesting was that Steven just had a notebook full of visual ideas that really had no roots in any story of any kind, and he would just tell us an image that he had in his head. We tried to find ways to tie these in so that they made some story sense.

George Clooney in Ocean's 13

Premiere: Now I guess because of the nature of the collaboration between the star, George Clooney, and Steven Soderbergh...

BK: Yeah, that's what you have to refer to him as on set, by the way...

Premiere: "The star."

BK: Yes, you always have to refer to him as, "the star," George Clooney.

Premiere: "The star," George Clooney. Yes.

BK: It was even like that when you were shooting hoops with him. "OK, 'The star,' Clooney has the ball and whoa!, nice shot, 'The star,' George Clooney." [General laughter.] I'm sorry, go ahead.

Premiere: He had a certain amount of input into the story. At what point in the process did his input begin to come into your writing?

DL: Pretty early on. You know, I guess it was sort of his and Steven's idea that they wanted to bring the [Ocean's 11] guys back to Vegas because they felt like that's where the series should live. And that the thing that motivated the story was something personal to them, where something happens to one of the guys, and the other guys have to pull together to get revenge and satisfaction. George was definitely behind that thinking along with Steven.