Matt Damon says Danny Ocean would never let the 'two knuckleheads' from Instigators into Ocean's 11 crew

Director Doug Liman's new heist film The Instigators plays as a more comedic, blue-collar, Boston-set Ocean's 11... if the Ocean's thieves were possibly the worst criminals ever. The comparison is all the more apt considering that both movies star Matt Damon and Casey Affleck,

"I think that's a pretty good description of it, actually," Damon tells Entertainment Weekly of the comparison. "We didn't really talk about Ocean's [on set] that much just because, to your point, those movies are about the exact perfect team, everyone with their specialty, and it all comes off beautifully in the end. And these guys are the opposite."

He adds, "There's no world in which Danny Ocean would let these two knuckleheads into his crew. And that's kind of the fun of it — it's two more regular people in the middle of a heist."

In the upcoming movie, Damon plays Rory, a desperate father who reluctantly teams up with ex-con Cobby to rob a corrupt politician (Ron Perlman) of his ill-gotten gains. When everything goes inevitably wrong, the duo find themselves chased by police, crime bosses, and backward bureaucrats. The stakes get higher (and funnier) when Rory's therapist (Hong Chau) gets roped into their shenanigans.

Liman, who previously collaborated with Damon on The Bourne Identity, says it was precisely that dynamic that drew him to the project. Plus, it gave him the chance to work with Damon again. "I just thought there was the opportunity to do something really special here," the director says. "From the beginning, I saw it was going to be a different kind of heist film. It was kind of like The Bad News Bears of heist films, that these are going to be two really inept thieves trying to rob the corrupt mayor of Boston, and that we could do a really fun comedy that's smart."

It also provided a chance to do an interesting foil of the amnesiac superspy Damon played in Bourne. "It's fun because the last time Matt and I collaborated, Jason Bourne is sort of the definition of competence," says Liman. "So it was fun to just do something that's in such a different lane. And obviously, it helps when you have someone like Matt Damon, who is just so versatile, and there's a reason he's a giant movie star. He obviously can be a big action leading man, but he's also really funny."

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Written by Chuck MacLean and Affleck, The Instigators also stars Michael Stuhlbarg, Paul Walter Hauser, Ving Rhames, Alfred Molina, Toby Jones, and Jack Harlow. The film will debut in select theaters on Aug. 2 before streaming globally on Apple TV+ on Aug. 9.