Apple TV+
If you were looking forward to a new “Wolfs” cinematic universe, I hope you’re sitting down. The Apple TV+ original movie made quite a splash earlier this year, led by A-list stars George Clooney and Brad Pitt in a buzzy thriller as two competing “fixers” — essentially the same shady occupation as Clooney’s character from “Michael Clayton” — and reuniting them in live action for the first time since Steven Soderbergh’s “Ocean’s” trilogy and “Burn After Reading.” The film received relatively positive reviews (including from yours truly, which you can read here) and marked a refreshing return to form for Jon Watts, the director who’s been mired in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with his “Spider-Man” movies since his promising debut “Cop Car.” According to the streamer, it became its highest-viewed movie ever, the production left Clooney and Pitt (and Watts) extremely well-compensated, and it even resulted in a pre-release announcement of a sequel already in the works.
So, what’s the problem? Well, the big, hairy fly in the ointment in all this was the fact that Apple executives made the choice to unceremoniously dump the film on streaming after giving it a token, weeklong, and very limited theatrical release. Of course, this came despite initial plans to release the movie in theaters worldwide. As miffed as the film’s two co-leads must’ve been by this twist, Watts himself apparently took it as a serious slight. In a somewhat surprising reveal, Variety has confirmed a report by Collider that the sequel has been put on hold indefinitely, if not canceled altogether.
The real drama in all of this, however, is that this decision wasn’t made by Apple TV+, but by Watts. Now, he’s making the rare move of publicly speaking out and explaining exactly what went down … and possibly burning down a bridge with the streamer in the process.
Wolfs director Jon Watts explains why Wolfs 2 is no longer happening
Apple TV+
Jon Watts, I owe you an apology. I wasn’t really familiar with your game, as the meme goes. After Apple TV+ refrained from commenting on this sticky situation, the “Wolfs” filmmaker showed considerable backbone by addressing this directly and refusing to hold back an inch. In a public display of dissatisfaction that — I can’t emphasize enough — we rarely see these days in otherwise tightly-controlled PR cycles, Watts provided Deadline with an exclusive interview to give his side of the story. Folks, it ain’t pretty.
According to Watts, he originally sold the film to Apple TV+ with the understanding that it would give “Wolfs” a traditional, theatrical release. Describing the streamer as “extremely enthusiastic” about his final cut of the film, enough that it instantly put him to work writing a sequel, Watts revealed that things started going south when Apple abruptly pivoted to a streaming release instead … and caught him completely by surprise. As Watts explained:
“I wasn’t even told about [the streaming release] until less than a week before [Apple] announced it to the world. 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. And so I quietly returned the money they gave me for the sequel.”
Boy, Watts just looks better and better here. To be clear, he would’ve been well within his rights to keep the money for the sequel he was hired to write. Apple, meanwhile, sure seems like the bad guy. To state the obvious, this is a continuation of a trend of streaming platforms treating artists as disposable — or, even worse, as a way to give their streaming services a nice bump in subscribers. In a case of brilliant timing, /Film’s BJ Colangelo recently wrote about how this entire process is leading to the death of truly original movies. Hopefully, Apple TV+’s loss will be Watts’ gain.
Until then, you can catch “Wolfs” on (where else) Apple TV+ right now.