So that’s what an Ella Fitzgerald is!
Add comment May 14th, 2009
I’m a big fan of OCEAN’S 11, director Steven Soderbergh’s updated version of the Rat Pack original (which frankly — and I know this is sacrilege — isn’t a very good movie). It’s fast, it’s funny, it’s beautifully filmed and it keeps you guessing. It’s one of the best purely entertaining movies of the 21st century.
In honor of this fine film, Neatorama shares some trivia about its creation. And they finally explain the beginning scene where Clooney and Pitt lay out their plan using a bunch of made-up terms. (I’ve been wondering about these for years — I figured most of ‘em out, but had no idea what an “Ella Fitzgerald” was — in the context of the film, it’s the perfect term to describe the big twist at the end). Here’s the explanantion, straight from Soderbergh himself:
“First of all, [screenwriter] Ted Griffin and I completely made the terms up. We felt we had to come up with some funny, Damon Runyon-esque turns of phrase that weren’t arbitrary we did sit down and think them out. So, Carl Reiner is the Boesky, as in Ivan, the powerful, rich magnate, inside kind of guy. Jim Brown is the confrontation Bernie Mac has with Matt Damon the ‘don’t mess with me or you’re in for it’ moment. The two Jethros are Casey Affleck and Scott Caan, the idea being ‘we’re going to need gear heads, car fanatics…some people who are total hillbilly under-the-hood guys.’ A Leon Spinks is the disruption of the boxing match: A sporting event with some controversy to it that’s what Leon Spinks means to me. The Miss Daisy association is driving; that was the SWAT van, a ruse involving transportation. The Ella Fitzgerald is the tape of the fake vault, which they’re going to play back and have [Andy Garcia’s character] Benedict think it’s live. ‘Is it live, or is it Memorex?’”
Check out the rest of the trivia here.
