After significantly downgrading the upcoming film’s theatrical run, promotional materials for Wolfs are ignoring the fact that it’s coming to cinemas at all.
It wasn’t terribly good news to discover that Apple has elected to turn its back on theatrical releases and instead focus on sending future projects straight to its streaming platform. That news broke earlier this month when it came to light that the upcoming crime thriller, Wolfs – featuring two big movie stars in the form of George Clooney and Brad Pitt – would be skipping its planned ‘wide’ theatrical run in September.
The film will still technically get a run in cinemas, but it isn’t expected to play on many US screens. If you want to see it in a cinema outside of America, you’d better book a ticket to Venice Film Festival next week as that is expected to be the only theatrical screening the film is getting in Europe.
Given that Apple has given us some ambitious and prestigious films to enjoy in the cinema such as Napoleon and Killers of The Flower Moon, it’s a dismal turn of events to say the least. What’s more, the bad news is only compounded by the promotional campaign for Wolfs which doesn’t even mention the film’s limited theatrical run at all, effectively rendering it invisible.
Not only does the film’s marketing campaign not mention that Wolfs will be playing in some cinemas in the US, the film has suddenly disappeared from advanced ticketing sites such as Fandango. In short, Apple is doing its very best to make sure that the public doesn’t know that the film is available to watch in cinemas. Dark Horizons is reporting that both of the film’s stars are fine with this strategy – much like Apple, they don’t want the film’s theatrical run to be highly visible so it isn’t dubbed as a failure.
We already know that director Jon Watts has signed up for a sequel to Wolfs and, given the way this saga is playing out, that film will likely be heading straight to streaming. Whilst some of Apple’s future projects – such as the upcoming F1 – may still be getting a wide theatrical run (and maybe even a marketing campaign if they’re lucky), the bulk of Apple’s future projects look to be set for streaming.
After all, if a crime flick starring two household names helmed by the director of three wildly-successful Spider-Man films can’t guarantee their film a theatrical release, what chance does anybody else stand? Time will tell, we suppose.
