For a few days this August, Monaco will be asked to perform an unusual role: itself, more than six decades ago.
A major Hollywood production is preparing to take over part of the Principality’s waterfront, with filming widely reported to be connected to Warner Bros.’ forthcoming Ocean’s Eleven prequel scheduled for the final week of August.
And Monaco is not simply being borrowed for its yachts, sunshine and unmistakable skyline. This time, the Principality lies at the heart of the story.
The still-untitled film, starring Margot Robbie and Bradley Cooper, travels back to the Monaco Grand Prix of 1962, where Danny Ocean’s parents are to carry out an ambitious heist long before their son develops his own taste for elaborate criminal enterprises.
Monaco Gets Ready for Hollywood
The first unmistakable signs of the production will appear around Port Hercule. The official Monaco decree does not actually identify the film by name, referring only to the filming of a “superproduction”.
According to arrangements published in Monaco, areas around the Darse Sud and Esplanade des Pêcheurs are being made available for a large-scale production between August 23 and 28, with filming expected to take place from Monday August 24 through Friday August 28.
The operation will require sections of the waterfront to be cleared, parking restrictions to be imposed and access to production zones limited while sets and other filming infrastructure are installed and subsequently removed.
The timing makes for a particularly busy few days on the port. Monaco is hosting the opening stages of the Vuelta a España immediately beforehand, on August 22 and 23. Almost as soon as the cyclists have departed, Hollywood moves in.
It is difficult to imagine a more appropriate setting for an Ocean’s Eleven film.
The franchise has always traded on the seductive combination of wealth, elegance, risk and people who are exceptionally good at getting into places where they are not supposed to be.
Back to the Monaco of Rainier and Grace
The Monaco the filmmakers need, however, is not the Monaco of 2026.
Their story unfolds in 1962, during the reign of Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace and at a time when the Principality was establishing the glamorous international image that would become inseparable from its name.
Margot Robbie revealed the film’s central idea at CinemaCon in April. Before George Clooney’s Danny Ocean began planning casino robberies in Las Vegas, she explained, his parents were already masters of the trade.
Their great Monaco job takes place against the 1962 Grand Prix.
That gives the filmmakers an unusually rich historical canvas: racing cars hurtling through Monte-Carlo, packed terraces, evening dress, casinos, grand hotels and a Mediterranean harbour belonging to an era before superyachts grew to the dimensions of small apartment blocks.
The real Grand Prix took place on June 3, 1962.
Jim Clark put his Lotus on pole position and set the fastest lap, but victory went to New Zealander Bruce McLaren in a Cooper-Climax. He completed 100 laps and beat Ferrari’s Phil Hill by just 1.3 seconds, with Lorenzo Bandini third.
The fictional robbery will therefore be taking place in the middle of a very real piece of Monaco sporting history.
A Formidable Crew
Bradley Cooper is taking on considerably more than an acting role. He is directing the film and has also been reported as working on the screenplay and producing the project. Robbie is producing through LuckyChap as well as starring.
And, appropriately for an Ocean’s movie, a sizeable ensemble is assembling around them.
Wagner Moura, the Brazilian actor acclaimed for Narcos and The Secret Agent, has been reported as playing the principal antagonist. Oscar-nominated Monica Barbaro and Josh Gad have also joined the production.
The cast has since expanded further, with Omar Sy, Vicky Krieps, George MacKay, Lauren Ridloff and Jack Holden among the additional names reported for the film.
Exactly who is stealing what from whom remains, quite properly for an Ocean’s film, under wraps.
Wanted: Several Hundred People Who Look Like It Is 1962
There is one obvious difficulty with shooting a 1960s film on the Côte d’Azur in 2026: the people have changed almost as much as the cars.
Casting notices have therefore sought hundreds of extras for filming in Monaco and Nice, with applicants ranging from 18 to 90 years old.
The production has been looking for the human scenery of a glamorous Grand Prix weekend: casino employees, croupiers, waiters, sommeliers and concierges alongside racing drivers, mechanics, police officers, firefighters, musicians, dancers, sailors and scooter riders.
There is, however, a catch.
Anyone hoping for a few seconds alongside Margot Robbie may need to look convincingly as though smartphones, Instagram and contemporary fashion have yet to be invented. Casting requirements have stressed a period appearance, making conspicuously modern hairstyles, visible tattoos and piercings problematic.
Filming in Nice and Monaco is expected to continue into October.
Monaco Playing Monaco
Hollywood has long been attracted to the Principality. Alfred Hitchcock famously brought Grace Kelly and Cary Grant here for To Catch a Thief, while Monaco’s casinos, hotels, roads and harbour have subsequently appeared in everything from James Bond adventures to Iron Man 2.
The new Ocean’s project is slightly different.
Rather than asking Monaco to impersonate an anonymous playground for the wealthy, it is making a particular moment in Monegasque history part of the plot.
That may also present its greatest visual challenge. Modern Monaco has gained towers, reclaimed land, radically different cars, larger yachts and an almost entirely transformed waterfront since 1962. Recreating the Principality of Rainier and Grace amid the Monaco of today will require considerably more than parking a few vintage Ferraris beside the harbour.
Yet there is something rather fitting about the exercise.
The Ocean’s films inhabit a world in which almost anything can be achieved with sufficient ingenuity, preparation, disguise and nerve.
This August, the filmmakers will attempt their own elaborate deception: making Monaco believe, at least through the camera lens, that it is 1962 again.
The untitled Ocean’s Eleven prequel is currently scheduled for theatrical release on June 25, 2027.
