They’ve pulled it off once more

JERRY WEINTRAUB has been making movies long enough to know a good thing when he sees it.

The longtime producer is behind one of this summer’s many anticipated movies, “Ocean’s Thirteen,” the third installment in director Steven Soderbergh’s blockbuster caper franchise that has its roots in the 1960 “Ocean’s Eleven” that starred Frank Sinatra and his famous Rat Pack. The film, which opens June 8, returns its all-star cast topped by George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon and adds Ellen Barkin and Al Pacino to the mix.

Although film budget figures are notoriously unreliable, it has been reported that when Soderbergh filmed his 2001 remake of “Ocean’s Eleven,” the production cost $85 million and went on to gross $450.7 million worldwide. Similarly, “Ocean’s Twelve,” released in 2004 to far less favorable reviews, reportedly cost $110 million but went on to rake in $362.7 million worldwide.

Weintraub puts much of that success on the warm relationship among the films’ stars. “They’re all-important” to the success of the franchise, he said, noting that their on-screen chemistry is evident on the set in “the way they communicate with each other and their camaraderie.”

“They all come to this film with a certain demeanor and they keep themselves very, very grounded when they are with me,” the producer continued. “They don’t come with a big entourage. They don’t come with drivers. They come on their motorbikes. They all get made up in the same trailer.”

Each morning, they would all meet for breakfast in the Ocean’s Lounge, a facsimile of an old-time Las Vegas casino and lounge that was built next to Sound Stage 15 on the Warner Bros. Burbank lot.

“Nobody stayed in the trailer,” Weintraub said. “Then everybody went in the makeup truck and then went onto the set. When that was over, they went right back and had lunch together.”

Still, he admits that getting stars of this caliber is tough given the schedules of other films they are doing, and that makes another “Ocean’s” unlikely. “I don’t think you’re going to see more of them,” he said. “It’s a very hard thing to do.”

In the new film, Danny Ocean (Clooney) and the gang attempt to pull off their most ambitious and risky casino heist in order to defend one of their own after Pacino, who plays a ruthless casino owner, pulls a double-cross on their pal Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould). The film also reunites Andy Garcia, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Eddie Jemison, Shaobo Qin and Carl Reiner.

This installment marks the third “Ocean’s” film in which Weintraub has a cameo, this time appearing as a big-time gambler named Denny Shields.

So, did he take direction well from Soderbergh?

“No,” he deadpanned. “Do I sound like I take direction OK? I only work with my friends who know that I don’t take direction well. They just turn me loose.”

-- Robert W. Welkos