I had written about Jon Watts’ “Wolfs” already eyeing a sequel with stars George Clooney and Brad Pitt set to return. Sony has dated the first film for a September 20, 2024 release. We’re possibly looking at a fall festival bow — Venice? TIFF? Telluride? All three?
On Wednesday morning our first look at “Wolfs” will be released unveiled via a 2-minute trailer. The project, written and directed by Watts, stars Pitt and Clooney as “lone wolf fixers” assigned to the same gig. As mentioned, they had such a blast making this film that they’re already working on a sequel. Here’s Clooney (via Deadline):
We’re already talking about a sequel for this film I did with Brad and Jon Watts. It was a great shoot and Jon is an extraordinarily talented guy who’s also really joyful. He loves what he does. We had a blast doing it and we’ve seen it. It’s an off the charts great film and it’s fun to work with Brad again. We had a really good time.
Following his Sundance breakout debut, “Cop Car,” Watts has been mostly dabbling in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So far, he’s directed “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home.”
However, “Wolfs” steers Watts far away from the MCU, but it’s no less a major project, one that sparked a massive bidding war in 2022, between a batch of studios. Apple eventually won the rights to “Wolfs.” Sony’s in charge of distributing the film with Apple TV producing.
“Wolfs,” which wrapped production in the fall of 2023, reunites Clooney and Pitt after previously working together on the Coen Brothers’ “Burn After Reading” and Steven Soderbergh’s “Ocean’s 11” movies. It’ll be interesting to see if this kind of high-wattage star power will be able to reignite a dormant 2024 box-office.
The ‘Smile’ franchise has a new director. David Bruckner, who made “The Night House” and the 2022 “Hellraiser” reboot, has been hired to direct “Smile 3” for Paramount.