It was a cinch, baby, getting the gang back together to make Ocean's Twelve, the sequel to the 2001 hit Ocean's Eleven.
Did you doubt it for one second? Everybody wanted to do it, and they were serious about not taking it seriously.
The first film nailed the high-shticking spirit of the original 1960 escapade starring Rat Packers Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr., and it made more green at the box office than gang leader Danny Ocean made in his Las Vegas hotel takedown. They're looking for more major moolah when Ocean's Twelve opens wide on Dec. 10.
George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, Don Cheadle and all the rest of the Rat Pack Redux signed on for another heist, as did director Steven Soderbergh, with the action this time set in Europe instead of Las Vegas. New to the continuing story are Catherine Zeta-Jones, who plays a romantically inclined cop on Pitt's tail, and Vincent Cassel, who plays the French rival to Clooney's pack leader Danny Ocean.
The only snag was getting everybody to settle down long enough to actually get some work done, always a problem when you're dealing with guys whose love of wisecracks and pranks is even bigger than their international star appeal.
All duly demonstrated by the hijinks at a golf-resort press conference here Saturday, in a room overlooking a water hazard, where serious questions were put on a tee and knocked down the fairway.
The order of the day by the cast members on hand — not including impending mama-to-be Roberts, on strict doctor's orders to avoid the limelight — was to try to out-top each other for one-liners, tongue-in-cheek bravado and jokes about the numerous pranks they've played on each other.
Which they all continued by razzing Pitt for being dethroned by Jude Law in a recent Sexiest Man Alive poll. (Law isn't an Ocean's gang member, incidentally, but who knows what the future holds?)
The whole Sexiest Man saga unfurled when a journalist foolishly asked the serious question of whether anyone had balked at making Ocean's Twelve.
"Brad Pitt," Cheadle said, starting the circus ball rolling, with Pitt not yet in the room.
"Brad Pitt," Damon agreed, smirking.
"Pretty Boy Pitt," Clooney chimed in, emphasizing every syllable and feigning disgust at the thought.
"You know, he's been pretty upset because of the Jude Law Sexiest Man thing."
"Jude Law took him down," Cheadle said.
"He's down. He's hurting," Clooney added.
"I'm friends with Jude ... and I'm a little worried for him just because Brad is pretty pissed off," offered Damon.
"When Brad comes in," Clooney instructed the journalists, "tell him you're sorry that he's not the Sexiest Man Alive."
Duly noted, and duly obeyed. When Pitt strolled in for part two of the press conference, with a Cheshire cat grin on his face, a journo obligingly played straight man and inquired as to Pitt's feelings about no longer being considered the most shaggable star on the planet.
"It was okay," Pitt said, feigning mock seriousness (the only kind allowed) about being dethroned by Law. "I think Matt was more shaken by it. He campaigned hard; he put up a good fight. The kid really tried his best."
Nyuk, nyuk. But hey, about the movie — was it hard work having so much fun running around and stealing stuff in Rome, Paris and Amsterdam?
Pitt again: "I'd like to call it work, but it was pretty much automatic for us. First of all, there's a very low level of maturity amongst all the guys there, so that helps. We bond very quickly. And then we've got the beautiful women to make us look a little better."
Speaking of those beautiful women, how did everyone cope the unexpected news that Roberts was pregnant with twins, when shooting was already underway? There was no plan to have Mrs. Danny Ocean be with child, let alone two children.
The good thing about being a prankster is that you just learn to let things roll. They handled the crisis by working Roberts' pregnancy into the story. Suffice to say it involves Roberts sending up her own celebrity image.
"The question was whether or not Julia was willing to do something as ballsy as that, which is to make fun of herself or celebrity or whatever that is," Clooney said. "It's a hard thing to do because you're using yourself. She just jumped in with both feet."
The other fabulous femme on the set, Zeta-Jones, also had to learn how to roll with it. She admitted it was a little tough at first, and she couldn't immediately break into the boy's club.
"I thought the guys didn't like me, because I didn't know how to prank," she said.
The ever-helpful Pitt offered the real reason: She was like the kid who shows up at class looking to study, on the day when the teacher is off sick.
"I think the biggest joke was on Catherine, because she thought she was making a movie," Pitt smirked.