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Jon Watts revealed in an interview with Collider that his planned sequel to the George Clooney and Brad Pitt-starring caper “Wolfs” would not go forward. Now he’s doubled down, telling Deadline in a statement that while he loved working with Brad Pitt and George Clooney he “no longer trusted [Apple] as a creative partner.”
“I loved working with Brad and George (and Amy and Austin and Poorna and Zlatko) and would happily do it again,” said Watts. “But the truth is that Apple didn’t cancel the ‘Wolfs’ sequel, I did, because I no longer trusted them as a creative partner.”
According to Watts, Apple was pleased by his cut of “Wolfs” and commissioned a sequel. And then: Instead of a wide release, Apple decided that “Wolfs” would spend one week in a limited number of theaters.
“I showed Apple my final cut of ‘Wolfs’ early this year,” Watts said. “They were extremely enthusiastic about it and immediately commissioned me to start writing a sequel. But their last-minute shift from a promised wide theatrical release to a streaming release was a total surprise and made without any explanation or discussion. I wasn’t even told about it until less than a week before they announced it to the world.”
At the time, all Watts could do was express his dismay and return the sequel’s commission. He held back on coming forward so as not to take away from the film‘s overall release.
“I was completely shocked and asked them to please not include the news that I was writing a sequel. They ignored my request and announced it in their press release anyway, seemingly to create a positive spin to their streaming pivot,” said Watts. “And so I quietly returned the money they gave me for the sequel. I didn’t want to talk about it because I was proud of the film and didn’t want to generate any unnecessary negative press.”
Watt’s situation contains echoes of Doug Liman’s MGM production “Road House” earlier this year. When Amazon acquired MGM in 2022, many of the films produced at that company shifted from theatrical releases to streaming debuts. Liman told IndieWire that the move directly impacted his compensation on the project.
“First of all, I have no issue with streaming. We need streaming movies ’cause we need writers to go to work and directors to go to work and actors to go to work and not every movie should be in a movie theater,” he said while promoting his Apple film “The Instigators.”
“I’m a big advocate of TV series, of streaming movies, of theatrical movies, we should have it all. My issue on ‘Road House’ is that we made the movie for MGM to be in theaters, everyone was paid as if it was going to be in theaters, and then Amazon switched it on us and nobody got compensated. Forget about the effect on the industry — 50 million people saw ‘Road House’ — I didn’t get a cent, Jake Gyllenhaal didn’t get a cent, [producer] Joel Silver didn’t get a cent. That’s wrong.”
Apple did not respond to a request for comment at press time.
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