Apple Original Films had originally promised writer-director Jon Watts and co-stars George Clooney and Brad Pitt a wide theatrical release for their upcoming (and seemingly well-reviewed) movie Wolfs. But, pretty much at the last minute, Apple canceled those plans, and instead will screen it in limited theaters for one week before streaming it on Apple TV+ at the end of this month.

David Canfield interviewed Watts for Vanity Fair, where Watts said he only found out about the change in plans a few days before it was announced:

Canfield: As somebody who’s worked in indies, who’s worked in the MCU, and has now made a standalone studio movie, how do you see the state of theatrical versus streaming, especially given the pivot with this movie? Does it concern you at all?

Watts: You want the movie to be seen, and if you maximize the way that people are able to actually see a movie, I think that is good — I watched so many movies that really influenced me on VHS because I grew up in a small town in Colorado, so we just didn’t have those movies in the theaters. But for me, the theatrical experience is still the number one. It’s up to the people that are able to make those decisions to put them in theaters for people to see, and just have the confidence that people will go see them. People want to go to the movies. People love the movies.

Canfield: If you had known then what you know now about the way this movie will be released, would you have gone in another direction, given that you were talking to a lot of studios?

Watts: [Laughs] I try to not think about hypothetical situations like that.

It doesn’t sound like Apple’s change of plans has resulted in bad blood, per se — merely disappointment. Watts has already agreed to write, produce, and direct a sequel. But it feels like Apple is still in the early stages of navigating its role as a Hollywood studio. I think there’s still a sense that Apple is a creator-friendly partner for big-budget movies, but a move like this, contradicting the obvious wishes of both the director and two of the biggest stars in the business, works against that reputation.

Also, a week-ago report in The New York Times by Nicole Sperling reported that Clooney and Pitt were paid “more than $35 million each”. But speaking at the Venice Film Festival premiere of Wolfs yesterday, Clooney said that number was bullshit:

“[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.”