Venice Film Festival welcomes Pitt, Clooney and their new film, ‘Wolfs’

VENICE, Italy — George Clooney and Brad Pitt returned to the Venice Film Festival on Sunday for the world premiere of “Wolfs.” Before hitting the red carpet, the Hollywood stars reflected on reuniting, the rise of streaming and Clooney’s New York Times op-ed urging President Joe Biden to end his reelection bid. Asked about the impact of his piece, Clooney said he’d not yet had to answer that question. “The person who should be applauded is the president who did the most selfless thing anyone’s done since George Washington,” Clooney said. “All the machinations that got us there, none of that’s going to be remembered. All credit goes to him.” Most of the discussion was focused on the film, however, an old school action thriller directed by Jon Watts, in which they play lone wolf fixers unhappy to have been hired for the same job to cover up a bloody mess involving a district attorney (played by Amy Ryan). Brad Pitt, left, and George Clooney pose for photographers at the Venice Film Festival. Apple TV+ acquired “Wolfs” in a competitive bidding war, beating out both traditional studios and rival streaming services. Deadline reported in 2021 that the understanding was that it would come with a robust theatrical release, something the stars may have also forfeited money to ensure, the trade publication said. That’s why Brad and I gave some of our money back,” he said, adding that a report in the New York Times overestimated the dollar amount of their salaries by millions. “Streaming, we need it, our industry needs it,” Clooney said. “They also benefit from having films released … and we’re figuring it out, we haven’t gotten it figured out yet.” Producer and Plan B executive Jeremy Kliner, who has worked with Pitt for over 20 years, said that they make films believing in their shelf lives, and that they’re doing something worthwhile. It’ll right itself.” Though both regulars at the picturesque festival on their own, with Clooney’s premieres including “Gravity” and “Good Night and Good Luck,” and “Ad Astra” and “The Assassination of Jesse James…” among Pitt’s, only once have they walked the carpet together. It was in 2008, for the premiere of “Burn After Reading,” the madcap Coen brothers’ farce in which they share one memorable scene. “In ‘Burn After Reading’ I got the extreme pleasure of shooting him in the face and I thought maybe we’d try it again 15 years later,” Clooney said with a laugh. The two teased one another about each other’s age and relevance, with Clooney joking that Pitt is 74 and lucky to be working at his age. “As I get older, just working with the people that I just really enjoy spending time with has become really important to me,” Pitt said. When they got the script, they said Watts hadn’t specified who was playing which part so Pitt and Clooney got on the phone and figured it out for themselves. Pitt arrived at the festival just days apart from his ex, Angelina Jolie, who received praise for her turn as opera singer Maria Callas in Pablo Larraín’s “Maria” and left Italy for another festival soon after. The film’s director, who catapulted from indies to the Tom Holland Spider-Man films, said in a director’s statement that this film is him trying to get back to street level after “seven years of swinging from skyscrapers and jumping through multiverse portals.” He was unable to speak about the film with his stars after testing positive for COVID-19. “He flew all the way here and then he got COVID,” Clooney said. – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/venice-film-festival-welcomes-pitt-clooney-new-film-wolfs-rcna169157