George Clooney and Julia Roberts are reuniting on screen in Ticket to Paradise, an upcoming rom-com that the Gravity star has been gushing about in interviews, calling it “something special.” Having previously appeared together in Ocean's Eleven in 2001, and its sequel Ocean's Twelve, as well as Money Monster in 2016, this will be the first time the pair have starred together in a rom-com despite having both had a huge number of romantic leads between them.
When it comes to star power, Clooney and Roberts have pulled in some big box office numbers over the last few decades and even if both stars have occasionally hit a dud, putting the two of them together in the same movie seems a no-brainer to guarantee a decent box office return. The pair will be joined in the film by Billie Lourd, Kaitlyn Dever, and Lucas Bravo, and it is expected to be released in October despite a number of Covid-based delays.
Speaking with Deadline, 60-year-old Clooney said that the movie will not be like a regular rom-com and will have plenty of verbal spats between his and Roberts’ characters. He also explained that he had to call the actress as soon as he read the script to see if she wanted to do it with him. He said:
"Well, this one is something special. This guy named Ol Parker is a really wonderful writer and director, and he wrote us a script, and I haven’t done a romantic comedy really since One Fine Day, and more than that. I’ve done some sort of snarky ones, you know, and in this one, Julia and I just get to be mean to each other in the funniest way, and the minute I read it I called Julia, and I said, ‘Did you get this?’ and she said, ‘Yeah,’ and I said ‘Are you going to do it?’ and she goes ‘Are you going to do it? and I said, ‘Yeah if you do it.’ So, it was just one of those very lucky things."
Ticket To Paradise Is George Clooney’s First Rom-Com In Over 25 Years
George Clooney is often still seen as a romantic lead despite having not dipped into the rom-com genre since One Fine Day in 1996, in which he starred alongside Michelle Pfeiffer. In describing Ticket to Paradise as an “old fashioned” movie, it seems like he is ready to slip back into that same kind of feel as the movies both he and Julia Roberts became associated with at various points in their careers.
The movie is currently getting ready to wrap in Australia, and although the strict rules around Covid in the country have forced the production to have many shutdowns and delays, it seems that the fun feel of the movie hasn’t been too badly impacted by these issues. As one of the few feel-good films to head out of Hollywood in recent years featuring some of the biggest names in the business, there is no doubt that Ticket to Paradise’s star power should be enough to pull in some decent box office numbers later this year.