Hollywood stars George Clooney and Brad Pitt have expressed their disappointment that their new comedy, “Wolfs,” won’t receive a wide theatrical release and is instead slated to head almost immediately to Apple TV+. Clooney acknowledged the letdown but emphasized the importance of streaming platforms like Apple in supporting the future of filmmaking. He believes these platforms offer actors more opportunities and can reach larger audiences.
“It is a bummer,” Clooney said on Sunday… “Streaming, we need it, our industry needs this.”
Written and directed by Jon Watts, “Wolfs” is an old-fashioned crime caper with Clooney and Pitt playing lone-wolf professional fixers who are forced to work together with comically unfortunate consequences.
Apple originally signaled it would place the film in a large number of cinemas before the TV release, but instead opted to show it briefly in a restricted number of U.S. movie theaters and then run it on its global TV service.
“We’ll always be romantic about the theatrical experience. At the same time, I love the existence of the streamers because we get to see more story, we get to see more talent, it gets more eyes,” said Pitt. “It’s a delicate balance right now and it’ll right itself.” Asked what it meant if two of the biggest names in the business could not get a broad cinema release, as they had requested, Clooney quipped: “Clearly we’re declining.”
MacDailyNews Take: Clooney and Pitt brought “Wolfs” to the Venice Film Festival on Sunday as the comedy film world premiered out of competition. The official screening was greeted with a five-minute, 35-second ovation.
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