Barbie and Ken will be trading in their hot-pink beachwear for pinstripe suits, because Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling already have a totally unexpected followup to Barbie planned out. The two will star in an upcoming crime thriller, which sounds like a complete 180 from Barbie. But that switch-up is what makes Robbie and Gosling’s Ocean’s 11 prequel so exciting, because as the film’s director put it, “there’s just some pairings you want to see over and over again.”
Jay Roach, who’s directing Robbie and Gosling in their heist era, laid out how this new movie will be different from past entries in the Ocean’s 11 franchise in a June 2 interview with The Associated Press. For one thing, the movie will be set in Monte Carlo in 1962, but more importantly, it will be a love story rather than solely a heist flick. “Margot brought it to me as a kind of old-fashioned love story slash adventure disguised as a heist,” Roach said. “It is a heist movie still, but it's very much a love story.”
Presumably this love story will be very different from Robbie and Gosling’s comedic romance in Barbie. Roach admitted he was initially a bit curious about whether casting the two in such a different genre after Barbie would work or not, but ultimately bet on their undeniable chemistry. “Originally there were some questions about whether it would be weird to have [the two] together again after Barbie,” Roach said. “But I think there’s just some pairings you want to see over and over again. It’s such a powerful, powerful duo, you know?”
The new crime movie will actually be the third time Robbie and Gosling have co-starred in a major film. They also both appeared in the 2015 financial dramedy The Big Short, although Robbie’s part in that movie was just a brief (albeit memorable) cameo. The new Ocean’s 11 movie will allow the duo to dive into the noir genre, with the Monaco Grand Prix as its backdrop and Alfred Hitchcock mysteries as an inspiration.
The movie doesn’t have a release date yet, but with the Barbie hype reaching an all-time high as its July 21 premiere date gets closer, hopefully the Ocean’s 11 prequel will follow not long after sometime in 2024.