Topic Of The Day: Are No Girls Allowed On The Sandbox?

So last week, they announced seven of the eight main actresses in the upcoming female Ocean's Eleven reboot called Ocean's Ocho. Sandra Bullock will star and co-produce while her co-stars are Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter, Mindy Kaling, Anne Hathaway, Rihanna, and Asian pop star Awkwafina who you may have spotted in Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising as one of the sorority sisters.

So far, they have a terrific cast but I still don't have very high feelings about this project. Mainly because I am not a fan of dividing up genders, having a boys and a girls team. By having a female-driven cast, it makes me feel like it isn't a movie for me. So while they're trying to represent the female gender and women of different ethnicities, since the cast is ethnically diverse, I feel that they're still being rather exclusive. Instead of making an all-female Ocean's movie, I wish they had called it something else and made an original heist film with a gender neutral cast with men and women.

If we want to see more progression on screen, we want to make movies for everyone. Look at Furious 7. It had a gender-neutral and multi-ethnic cast and it is the first film in the Fast and Furious franchise to join the billion dollar club. Lucy was sold entirely on Scarlett Johansson's name and yet it still had a diverse cast with Morgan Freeman and Choi Min-sik as the main co-stars. It cost about $40 million to make and made $463 million worldwide. Even if Bad Moms had a predominantly female cast, it was an original concept that cost $20 million yet so far it has made $70 million domestically, likely making $100m in the near future. So if you want to make more female-centered films, at least greenlight an original concept. I like who they have in the cast for the Ocean's movie. But if they put them in an original film, I would probably still go see it even if it might not seem like it is geared towards my demographic.

But what do you guys think? Do you think this reboot is a good or bad idea? Please feel free to write your thoughts in the comments section. Thanks for reading!