EXCLUSIVE: We are hearing that two-time Oscar-nominated Minari filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung is in talks to direct the Ocean’s prequel for Warner Bros that LuckyChap is producing.
In true Ocean’s fashion, the plot is locked in the vault. The project remains in early development with no cast deals in place at this time. The current screenplay is by Carrie Solomon and based on characters created by George Clayton Johnson & Jack Golden Russell.
The Las Vegas heist series of movies, originally made famous with the 1960 first installment starring five members of the Rat Pack — Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop — along with Angela Dickinson, has always been a cornerstone franchise for Warner Bros. Steven Soderbergh rebooted the series in 2001 with a new trilogy starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia and Julia Roberts. There was also a 2018 all-female version starring Sandra Bullock, Anne Hathaway and Cate Blanchett. The four movies cleared north of $1.4 billion at the worldwide box office.
Chung was nominated for best director and original screenplay for A24’s Minari, which also won the Grand Jury and Audience Awards at Sundance in 2020 and garnered Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice wins, along with multiple Academy, Spirit, BAFTA and SAG nominations. Minari was nominated for six Oscars, winning one for Youn Yuh-jung as Best Supporting Actress. The film was named one of the 10 best films of 2020 by AFI and by the National Board of Review, which also awarded Chung its Best Original Screenplay prize.
Chung rebooted Universal and Warner Bros’ Twisters, which posted an $81.2 million domestic opening and legged out to $267.7M domestic and $372.2M worldwide. The filmmaker’s other projects include Munyurangabo, which premiered in 2007 at the Cannes Film Festival to critical acclaim, and episodes of The Mandalorian and Skeleton Crew. He is also set to direct the upcoming feature adaptation of the sci-fi novel Traveler by Joseph Eckert.
A son of Korean immigrants, Chung grew up on a small farm in rural Arkansas and attended Yale University before abandoning plans for medical school to earn his MFA in film studies at the University of Utah. He is repped by CAA and Jackoway Austen.
