There really is another level of star power when a film adds both George Clooney and Brad Pitt to the equation.
While the big premieres at the 2024 Venice Film Festival so far have had some wiggle room between the film’s listed start time, and when the movie actually begins playing, the “Wolfs” premiere was a whole half hour late to even letting people into the Sala Grande. The Saturday premiere was such a hot ticket that stars like Benedict Cumberbatch, Harris Dickinson, Cailee Spaeny, and Alia Shawkat were all present to support the Apple release, which also stars Austin Abrams and Amy Ryan.
As the credits rolled after midnight, the audience may have lost their energy, leading to an applause afterwards that would not break any records, but the whole event still illuminated how when Clooney and Pitt choose to collaborate, a large audience follows. A point that has been called into question after the decision to release “Wolfs” in a limited amount of theaters, rather than the initial plan to send it wide on September 20.
Earlier in the day, both “Wolfs” stars at the Venice press conference for the film waxed poetic about the pros and cons of the studio prioritizing its streaming release, with Clooney saying “Of course it’s a bummer, but on the other hand, a lot of people are going to see the film, and we are getting a release in the few hundred theaters, so we’re getting a release. But yeah, it would have been nicer to have [more],” in reference to reports surrounding the film moving from a wide release on September 20 to a limited release the same day, with “Wolfs” available to stream on Apple TV+ one week later.
“You know, streaming, we need it. Our industry needs this. This is part of what we’re doing, but they also benefit from having films released. That’s why Brad and I were working so hard to try and get this released. And we’re figuring it out. We haven’t got it all figured out,” he added. “This is a revolution in our industry, but we need Apple and Amazon, and they actually need distributors, right? They need to have Sony or Warner Brothers who actually have been doing this for 100 years.”
“I think we’ll always be romantic about the theatrical experience,” said Pitt. “At the same time, I love this, the existence of the streamers, because we get to see more story. We get to see more talent. It gets more eyes.”
“Wolfs” world premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival. It will premiere in theaters for one week starting September 20 before streaming on Apple TV+ September 27.
