Ladies in the house: Rihanna, Anne Hathaway expected to join ‘Ocean’s Eight’

Production of the upcoming Warner Bros. movie, to be called Ocean’s Eight, is expected to start in October


News Desk August 11, 2016
Rihanna (top) was last seen in Annie, whereas Anne (bottom) starred in 2015’s The Intern. PHOTOS: FILE

Pop star Rihanna, along with actors Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter, is in talks to join Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett in a female-driven spin-off of crime caper franchise Ocean’s Eleven, according to Reuters.

News of the movie comes just a month after the release of the all-female remake of the beloved 1984 action comedy Ghostbusters,  starring Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig, which prompted a hate-filled backlash on social media.

Ever since plans for Ghostbusters were announced a year ago, the decision to go with a new, female cast has provoked controversy online and led to the trailer earning the distinction of being the most disliked in YouTube history. Ghostbusters went on to earn generally warm reviews and has taken more than $180 million at the worldwide box office since its July 15 release.

Production of the upcoming Warner Bros. movie, to be called Ocean’s Eight, is expected to start in October, with Gary Ross. The director told movie website SlashFilm in June that the movie would continue the Ocean’s Eleven trilogy, starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt, and have a similar, light-hearted tone.



Ocean’s Eleven, in which Clooney and his accomplices rob three Las Vegas casinos, made some $450 million at the worldwide box office after its 2001 release. Ocean’s Twelve and Ocean’s Thirteen followed, bringing in another $670 million for Warner Bros.

Actor Mindy Kaling, star of US comedy series The Mindy Project, is also expected to join in, along with Asian-American rapper Awkwafina. Ross said that the idea for Ocean’s Eight had been in the works for years and that director Steven Soderbergh would be a producer on it.

Anne Hathaway, who recently welcomed a baby boy with husband Adam Shulman, will be making a comeback to the silver screen with Ocean’s Eight. The Princess Diaries star was recently in the news for slamming body shaming.

“There is no shame in gaining weight during pregnancy [or ever]. There is no shame if it takes longer than you think it will to lose the weight, if you want to lose it at all. There is no shame in finally breaking down and making your own jeans into shorts because last summer’s are just too small for this summer’s thighs,” she wrote, reported IANS. “Bodies change. Bodies grow. Bodies shrink. It’s all love and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

Hathaway’s empowering post came nearly three months after her appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where she explained how she was horrified by a trainer at the gym who called her out for wanting to lose her baby weight, instead of congratulating her for having the baby. “If somebody says, ‘I had a baby 13 years ago’ you say, ‘You look great.’ That is what you do... That is the etiquette,” she explained. “So I say to this guy that I had a baby seven weeks ago. And he goes, ‘Oh, trying to lose the baby weight!’”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 12th, 2016.

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