"This is the kind of film technically that people like Steven Spielberg and David Fincher and John McTiernan do with both hands tied behind their back," Steven Soderbergh says with a laugh. "Not me. It was a struggle for me. Half way through this film I was wondering what I had gotten myself into."
Las Vegas, with its famous Strip lined with luxurious hotels and casinos, became the largest set for the film. "One of the things that scared me when I read the script was the amount of time that we would have to be shooting on the floor of the casino," Soderbergh reveals. "I've had friends who had worked on films there and knew that that normally the hotels only want film companies to shoot between midnight and 6:00 a.m. during the week. I was pretty anxious about that aspect. As it turned out, the cooperation that was extended to us by the casinos, particularly the Bellagio, was unlimited."
This largesse of cooperation can be explained in two words: Jerry Weintraub.
"Jerry was the element that Steven and I didn't know about," George Clooney says. "We knew he was a producer and also that he had orchestrated all those big music concerts. But we had no idea what a wonderful producer he is. He has this great element of showmanship, which Steven and I don't really have. Jerry got us literally millions of dollars worth of production value in Las Vegas alone — simply by knowing the right people. And by the fact that they all had such respect for him."
"Literally," adds Soderbergh, "it wouldn't have happened without Jerry. We would have been just another movie trying to gain access. He did an amazing job of pitching the story and pitching us as a group that wasn't going to do them a disservice, either literally by making a mess of their casino or by making a movie that would reflect badly on them."
Of all the luxury hotels on the strip, the one chosen for the major portion of the film was the Bellagio, where the company spent nearly five weeks filming interiors and exteriors. The cast also called the hotel's exclusive private villas home for the duration of their stay in Las Vegas.
"The reason we selected the Bellagio," says Weintraub, "is that it's the prettiest hotel in Las Vegas. It's also the most luxurious and the most important hotel in town. In addition, at the time I made our deal, it was owned by Steve Wynn, who is a very dear friend of mine. I had shot movies in his Mirage Hotel before so he had a sense of what I would be doing and he trusted me with the reputation of his hotel. Even though we were going to rob it! As it happens, before we even began to film there, he had sold the hotel to Kirk Kerkorian, who also happens to be an old friend of mine, so our plans went forward."
But the negotiations regarding the extensive filming throughout the Bellagio presented more challenges to Weintraub and Company. "When we first laid out our plans for filming at the hotel, they kept saying ‘No, you can't do that," and ‘No, and no and no," Weintraub recalls. "Then John Hardy and Susan Ekins, our executive producers, did a walk through with Bobby Baldwin, who is the President and CEO of Mirage Resorts and Terry Lanni, who is Chairman of the Board and CEO of MGM/Mirage. Susan and John showed them what Steven wanted to do and Bobby Baldwin gave us the go-ahead.
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