wolves director Jon Watts said Collider on Friday that he did not believe a sequel to the George Clooney and Brad Pitt film, which Apple had already given the green light, would happen. Yesterday he revealed Deadline that he had backed out of the project because he “no longer trusted (Apple) as a creative partner” after the company did a 180-degree turn on its theatrical release.
The New York Times reported in August that Apple withdrew the theatrical run for wolves because he was worried he was spending too much on movies after suffering multiple high-profile box office disappointments. At the same time, his time-bound approach worked for Doug Liman's project. The instigatorswhich analysts cited for the Times said it was the most watched streaming movie in its first week and generated around 50,000 subscriptions to Apple TV Plus.
Similarly, wolves became “by far the most watched feature film ever released” on Apple TV Plus, as Deadline writes. But Watts wasn't happy with the experience, telling the outlet that he “was completely shocked” by Apple's “last-minute change to a wide theatrical release” and asked the company not to announce that he was writing a sequel.
They ignored my request and announced it in their press release anyway, apparently to create a positive spin on their streaming pivot. And so I calmly 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, Austin, Poorna and Zlatko) and would happily do it again. But the truth is that Apple did not cancel the wolves “In the sequel I did it because I no longer trusted them as creative partners.”
Liman described a similar experience when making road house for amazon in July interview with IndieWire. (He did, however, praise Apple and say it was “fair” about The instigators is made for streaming.) And director Steve McQueen recently told the outlet in his own interview that “he can't say he's not sad” because Apple has only released his movie about World War II aerial bombardment a limited version.
By all indications and despite the discontent of some directors, Apple seems determined to be cautious with its theatrical risks from now on. As Bloomberg reported In September, the company's changing plans mean spending less money per movie, with “one or two big changes in theaters a year” with movies like the next one. F1.
