Port Hercule has been transformed into a film set this week for the filming of “Sandcastles,” the prequel to the Ocean’s Eleven saga, according to Monaco Info, with the shoot confirmed as the cause of the significant road, parking and public transport closures affecting the area through Friday, August 28.
Directed by and starring Bradley Cooper alongside Margot Robbie, the film is set in 1962 against the backdrop of the legendary Monaco Grand Prix. Several hundred extras in period costume were gathered on set this week, part of an effort to recreate the era as authentically as possible.
The production ties directly to the wide-ranging closures announced for Port Hercule earlier this week, which restricted pedestrian access along Quai Albert 1er and brought a rolling schedule of road, parking and bus disruption to the surrounding streets between Sunday, August 23, and Friday, August 28.
The film, produced by Robbie’s LuckyChap Entertainment for Warner Bros., serves as an origin story for the Ocean’s franchise, centred on the parents of Danny Ocean, the master thief later played by George Clooney across the original trilogy. Robbie described the premise at this year’s Comic-Con, saying that before Danny Ocean ever set foot in Vegas, two masterminds taught him everything he knows: his parents, adding that audiences will see them in their prime, pulling off an elaborate heist.
Cooper, who also wrote the screenplay after taking over directing duties from Lee Isaac Chung earlier this year, is widely reported to be playing Danny’s father, with Robbie presumed to star opposite him as his mother, the film’s other central mastermind, though neither role has been officially confirmed by the studio. The cast also includes Monica Barbaro, Brazilian actor Wagner Moura, reportedly cast as the film’s antagonist, along with Vicky Krieps, George MacKay, Lauren Ridloff, Jack Holden, Omar Sy and Josh Gad.
Production began in Paris earlier this month, with Cooper, Robbie and Barbaro all spotted on set in period-appropriate 1960s costuming, before the shoot moved south to the Riviera. Earlier casting notices had sought extras aged 18 to 90 to fill out the film’s world, including hotel and casino staff, croupiers, bodyguards, police officers and lifeguards, with applicants required to live in or near Nice or Monaco.
For a Principality already well accustomed to hosting film crews and major productions, the arrival of Cooper and Robbie’s team marks one of the more high-profile shoots of the year, bringing a slice of Old Hollywood glamour, and a fictional 1962 Grand Prix heist, to Monaco’s own doorstep. The film is currently scheduled for theatrical release on June 25, 2027.