George Clooney has set right a claim that he and Wolfs co-star Brad Pitt were paid around $35 million each for the film, as reported in a New York Times article.
The duo brought their banter and riffing to the Venice Film Festival for the world premiere of Jon Watt’s action comedy, in which they play competing criminal fixers accidentally assigned to the same job. The two movie stars and real-world pals traded friendly jabs, praise and filmmaking insights in Italy at a press conference for Wolfs.
At one point, Clooney explained that the pair gave portions of their salaries back after a theatrical deal fell through for the film, meaning it gets a limited release in “a couple of hundred theaters,” and brought up a New York Times article published last week by Nicole Sperling that said he and Pitt were paid more than $35 million each.
“[It was] an interesting article and whatever her source was for our salary, it is millions and millions and millions of dollars less than what was reported. And I am only saying that because I think it’s bad for our industry if that’s what people think is the standard bearer for salaries,” Clooney said. “I think that’s terrible, it’ll make it impossible to make films.”
“Yes, we wanted it to be released [in theaters]. We’ve had some bumps along the way, that happens. When I did [Clooney-directed biographical sports drama] The Boys in the Boat, we did it for MGM, and then it ended up being for Amazon and we didn’t get a foreign release at all, which was a surprise. There are elements of this that we are figuring out. You guys are all in this too. We’re all in this industry and we’re trying to find our way post-COVID and everything else, and so there’s some bumps along the way. It is a bummer of course, but on the other hand, a lot of people are going to see the film and we are getting a release in a few hundred theaters, so we’re getting a release. But yeah, it would’ve been nice if we to have a wide release.”
Just days before the two movie stars landed in Venice, news broke that Watts has a deal in place with Apple to write and direct a Wolfs sequel. It is unclear if Clooney and Pitt have also already signed on for the follow-up.
Clooney also took an opportunity at the press conference to publicly comment for the first time about his recent op-ed for The New York Times titled, “I Love Joe Biden, But We Need a New Nominee”, he said the President’s move to step down as Democratic presidential nominee “the most selfless thing that anybody has done since George Washington.”
“All of the machinations that got us there, none of that’s going to be remembered, and it shouldn’t be,” Clooney said. “What should be remembered is the selfless act of someone who did the hardest thing to do. You know we’ve seen it all around the world, and for someone to say, I think there’s a better way forward, he gets all the credit, and that’s really the truth.”
Wolfs will launch on Apple TV+ on Sept. 27, following its Sept. 20 limited theatrical release via Sony.