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It's no surprise that Las Vegas is a popular location for moviemakers. With its hotel icons, cartoonish landmarks, sci-fi hedonism and franchised greediness, the world's premier bling and ka-ching metropolis is the ideal setting for gangsters, players, hookers and high rollers.

In the past decade, The Cooler, Swingers, Very Bad Things and Scorsese's epic Casino have all been set in Vegas. TV is hip to the bright lights and heartbreak of the city too. Currently, the Sky One series Las Vegas with James Caan, and CSI Vegas, a tense drama of forensics, are set amid the decadence of the Strip.

Vegas has always encouraged filmmakers, because movies help perpetuate the city's mythical status and double up as glossy tourism commercials for the town — even if they are as darkly comedic as 1998's Very Bad Things (a Vegas bachelor party with coke and hookers and multiple killings). But, as with pretty much everything in Vegas, you have to know the right people. Producer Jerry Weintraub discovered this when he decided to make the then brand-new Bellagio hotel the focus of 2001's Ocean's Eleven, a Gucci'ed up remake of Sinatra and company's flaccid 1960 original starring George Clooney.

“The reason we selected the Bellagio,” Weintraub said, “is that it's the prettiest hotel in Las Vegas. In addition, at the time I made our deal, it was owned by Steve Wynn, who is a very dear friend of mine. He trusted me with the reputation of his hotel. Even though we were going to rob it.''

Why do directors love Vegas? Easy. The city is built like a film set on a Gulf War budget. Some of it — like the New York, New York hotel, with its mini Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State and Chrysler Buildings — actually looks like a functioning film set.

The city also generates its own movie industry. Vegas stories and characters — like Barry Levinson's Bugsy (a 1991 bio-pic of maverick gangster Bugsy Segal, who established the first ever casino in Vegas) — come to directors fully formed.

It took me a day or so to acclimatize to all this, to fully accept that moral introspection, integrity and informed aesthetic judgment are not qualities that are required on a trip here. Best to ease your mind into a kind of comfortably dumb mode and just enjoy sin city's sensory overload.

Then, just as I was starting to come round to the idea of Vegas's Big Gulp lifestyle, the place goes and changes its mind on me. According to the local zeitgeist, themed resort hotels are out. They belong to that period of ancient history — say, five, seven years ago — when Vegas was trying to rebrand itself as a family destination.

Despite the thrill rides and family shows, the experiment didn't work. It led to a decline in per-visitor gambling revenues because family men just don't bet as much as single, fortysomething wise guys. And anyway, under-18s are not allowed on the casino floors. They're not even allowed out on the Strip after 9 p.m. unless accompanied by their parents.

So, the theme in Las Vegas now, if there is a “theme'' at all, is . . . “Vegas.” Classic Vegas, in fact. Grown-up, sophisticated Vegas with luxury condos and boutique hotel experiences.

On my visit, I stayed at the Wynn, the newest hotel on the Strip, positioned on the site of the old Desert Inn, a Vegas classic itself that played a major role in my favourite Vegas movie, 1985's Lost In America.

But even the crescent-shaped monolith that is the Wynn is no longer the talk of the town. That honour currently belongs to Las Ramblas, a new development shortly to break ground for 4,400 condominium and hotel units in 11 high-rise towers, along with shops and a 48,000-square-foot casino (modest by Vegas's gaming-behemoth standards).

In a neat life-imitating-art twist, Las Ramblas is being fronted by a man who may very well turn out to be the saviour of Vegas's cool: single, fortysomething wise guy George Clooney, who became enamoured of the city while working on Ocean's Eleven.

Okay, so we'll never know just how much Clooney has invested in the $3.5-billion project (although he claims he wants to be a “real” investor. “How much did I put in? A lot. A lot more than I expected”), but his roguishly commercial good looks and Rat Pack-redux appeal have not been lost on Las Ramblas's marketing team. In advertising material, he wears a tux with an artfully unfurled black tie and holds a martini glass.

Clooney has said the hotel at Las Ramblas will be smart and sophisticated: “More Tony Bennett than Britney Spears. I want it to be like old Vegas and old Hollywood. It's going to be a classy joint.”

Brad Pitt, a known architecture fan and an Ocean's Eleven co-star, is being mooted as the possible designer of one Las Ramblas's buildings and there's even talk of a Rat Pack-ish “jackets required” dress code at the hotel — a concept unheard of since Sinatra's day.

For tourism information, visit www.lasvegastourism.com.

Guardian News Service