George Clooney is pushing back on a recent report that he and his Wolf co-star Brad Pitt received a huge salary for the film, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Sunday.
Last week, The New York Times reported that the stars of Ocean’s 11 received more than $35 million each for their roles in Jon Watt’s action comedy.
Addressing the report during a press conference at the premiere of Wolfsby, Clooney mentioned the alleged figures.
“It was an interesting article, and whatever their source was for our salary, it’s millions and millions and millions of dollars less than what was reported,” he began.
“And I’m only saying that because I think it’s bad for our industry that people think that’s what the standard should be when it comes to wages.”
He added: “I think that’s terrible. It will make it impossible to make films.”
George Clooney has disputed a recent report claiming he and his Wolf co-star Brad Pitt received a huge salary for the film, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Sunday (pictured)
Last week, The New York Times claimed that the stars of Ocean’s 11 received more than $35 million each for their roles in Jon Watt’s action comedy (Pitt and Clooney pictured in Wolfs).
Clooney clarified that after a release deal for the film fell through, resulting in a limited release in “a couple hundred theaters,” both he and Pitt returned part of their salaries.
“Yes, we wanted to release it (in theaters). We’ve had some bumps in the road, that happens,” he explained.
‘When I did The Boys in the Boat, we did it for MGM, and then it ended up being for Amazon and we didn’t have any foreign release, which was a surprise.
‘There are elements of this that we’re figuring out. You’re all involved in this as well. We’re all in this industry and we’re trying to find our way after COVID and everything else, so there are some bumps in the road.
Clooney reiterated his disappointment with the limited release, but acknowledged that the film will still reach a wide audience, although a wider release would have been preferable.
The film marks the first time Clooney and Pitt have shared the screen since 2008’s Burn After Reading.
In this new project, the iconic duo play problem solvers who are tasked with covering up crimes, but reluctantly end up teaming up when they are assigned the same job.
At the premiere, Clooney reflected on his long professional and personal relationship with Pitt.
“It was an interesting article and whatever their source was for determining our salary, it’s millions and millions and millions of dollars less than what was reported,” he began. “And I only say that because I think it’s bad for our industry if that’s what people think is the standard for salaries.”
Clooney added: “I think that’s terrible, it will make it impossible to make movies.” (Amal, George, Ines, Brad at the premiere)
“There’s nothing good about it,” he joked. People“It’s a complete disaster.”
On a more serious note, George added: “It’s fun working with people you know really well.”
Meanwhile, the new buddy cop movie has been savaged by critics, who have called it a “messy” one-starrer and an “unbearable comedy.”
Wolfs, the $200 million Apple TV+ film in theaters Sept. 20, follows the two Ocean’s Eleven co-stars who are reluctantly forced to work together to “fix” a problem that arises when a tough-on-crime district attorney wakes up to a dead twenty-something she was having a one-night stand with.
But critics say the film, which had a record budget for any streaming movie, flops, with IGN’s Siddhant Adlakha criticizing It’s a “slick student film directed by a rich teenager who has subsisted on a media diet of early Guy Ritchie.”
Xan Brooks of The Guardian He also wrote that ‘the joke might be on’ director Jon Watts, who made a fortune on the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Spider-Man trilogy, ‘because what he’s made is basically the meme movie where two Spideys point at each other.’
And the Telegraph’s Robbie Collin called the film “messy” and wrote: “George Clooney recently complained that Quentin Tarantino doesn’t consider him a movie star. If he makes more films like this, Clooney will soon prove Tarantino right.”
In Wolves, the iconic duo play problem-solvers who are tasked with covering up crimes, but find themselves reluctantly working together when assigned the same job.
He and other critics say Watts seemed to have banked on Clooney and Pitt’s star status to make it a blockbuster, with a lackluster plot and a “half-baked script with little humor or heart.”
Barry Levitt of the Daily Beast argued that all the jokes revolve around the single idea that neither character wants to work with the other.
‘Driving with Clooney and Pitt in Wolfsby captures all the thrilling fun of your kids shouting “Are we there yet?” ad infinitum,’ Levitt said. writes.
“He repeats the same joke over and over (and over again). And just when you think Wolfs might be interested in moving on to new material, he tries the same joke again, in its 400th variation.”