‘Wolfs’ sequel starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt canceled because director ‘no longer trusted’ Apple

Just two months after the release of “Wolves,” a film starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt, director Jon Watts has announced the cancellation of a planned sequel. In a recent interview with Deadline, Watts expressed a loss of trust in Apple as a creative partner, leading to the decision to abandon the project.
Mike Fleming Jr. for Deadline:
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“I showed Apple my final cut of Wolfs early this year,” Watts told Deadline. “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. 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. 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. I loved working with Brad and George (and Amy and Austin and Poorna and Zlatko) and would happily do it again. But the truth is that Apple didn’t cancel the Wolfs sequel, I did, because I no longer trusted them as a creative partner.”

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MacDailyNews Take: As Paul Harvey would say, “Now you know the rest of the story.”
As for theatrical vs. streaming releases, a 2020 study found that 70% of consumers would rather watch new movies at home than in a movie theater.
Let’s see:
A) $19.99 for a first-run movie in the comfort of your own house on a large screen, with controllable audio volume (even closed captioning if you desire), with the entire family and your own all-you-can-eat popcorn, candy, and drinks for under $10 total for everyone…
or
B) At least $80.00 for a family of four with criminally-overpriced often-stale popcorn, candy, and drinks at a potentially COVID-encrusted theater packed with uncouth idiots from who-knows-where talking, eating, coughing, sneezing, crunching bags, looking their phones, getting up to go to the bathroom, etc.
It’s such a difficult choice!
The $10 bucket of 10-cents worth of popcorn and the $6 cup of 6-cents worth of soda are obvious clues that theatre owners don’t have a sustainable business model.
Bottom line: It took a global pandemic to wake up Hollywood and drag it kicking and screaming into the new millennium at least a decade late. We’re sure Steve Jobs was telling Hollywood honchos this would happen long ago. — MacDailyNews, April 28, 2020

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