Jon Watts revealed in an interview with Collider that his deliberate sequel to the George Clooney and Brad Pitt-starring caper “Wolfs” wouldn’t go ahead. Now he’s doubled down, telling Deadline in a press release that whereas he liked working with Brad Pitt and George Clooney he “not trusted [Apple] as a inventive accomplice.”
“I liked working with Brad and George (and Amy and Austin and Poorna and Zlatko) and would fortunately do it once more,” mentioned Watts. “However the fact is that Apple didn’t cancel the ‘Wolfs’ sequel, I did, as a result of I not trusted them as a inventive accomplice.”
In line with Watts, Apple was happy by his lower of “Wolfs” and commissioned a sequel. After which: As an alternative of a large launch, Apple determined that “Wolfs” would spend one week in a restricted variety of theaters.
“I confirmed Apple my ultimate lower of ‘Wolfs’ early this 12 months,” Watts mentioned. “They had been extraordinarily smitten by it and instantly commissioned me to begin writing a sequel. However their last-minute shift from a promised large theatrical launch to a streaming launch was a complete shock and made with none rationalization or dialogue. I wasn’t even advised about it till lower than every week earlier than they introduced it to the world.”
On the time, all Watts might do was categorical his dismay and return the sequel’s fee. He held again on coming ahead in order not to remove from the movie‘s general launch.
“I used to be utterly shocked and requested them to please not embrace the information that I used to be writing a sequel. They ignored my request and introduced it of their press launch anyway, seemingly to create a constructive spin to their streaming pivot,” mentioned Watts. “And so I quietly returned the cash they gave me for the sequel. I didn’t wish to discuss it as a result of I used to be happy with the movie and didn’t wish to generate any pointless detrimental press.”
Watt’s scenario accommodates echoes of Doug Liman’s MGM manufacturing “Highway Home” earlier this 12 months. When Amazon acquired MGM in 2022, lots of the movies produced at that firm shifted from theatrical releases to streaming debuts. Liman advised IndieWire that the transfer immediately impacted his compensation on the mission.
“Initially, I’ve no situation with streaming. We want streaming films ’trigger we’d like writers to go to work and administrators to go to work and actors to go to work and never each film needs to be in a movie show,” he mentioned whereas selling his Apple movie “The Instigators.”
“I’m an enormous advocate of TV collection, of streaming films, of theatrical films, we must always have all of it. My situation on ‘Highway Home’ is that we made the film for MGM to be in theaters, everybody was paid as if it was going to be in theaters, after which Amazon switched it on us and no one received compensated. Neglect in regards to the impact on the trade — 50 million folks noticed ‘Highway Home’ — I didn’t get a cent, Jake Gyllenhaal didn’t get a cent, [producer] Joel Silver didn’t get a cent. That’s flawed.”
Apple didn’t reply to a request for remark at press time.