‘Wolfs’ Film Director on Marvel, Brad Pitt, George Clooney: Venice

In December 2021, Jon Watts found himself standing in the back of the Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard on the opening night of his last film, Spider-Man: No Way Home. The entry was one of the first major studio theatrical releases following the pandemic shutdown, and the audience was standing, screaming, crying and generally carrying on in a way that, even for the first showing of a fan-favorite superhero movie, was a spectacle all to itself.

“That was such a specific moment in time, and the reaction to that movie was just so unbelievable,” remembers Watts. It was at this point that the director came to the realization: “It’s never going to be like this, ever again.”

No Way Home went on to gross nearly $2 billion at the global box office, the sixth-highest-grossing film of all time and one of the top Marvel movies, trailing only the last two Avengers films. Watts decided not to return for a fourth Spider-Man, and in 2022 exited as the director of another Marvel property, Fantastic Four. In any industry, it’s hard to walk away from something successful. In contemporary Hollywood — where even Robert Downey Jr. is returning to the superhero fold — it can be career-threatening.

Watts left his resident cinematic universe to pursue an original concept he had been batting around for years. Inspired by films like the beloved French crime thriller Le Samouraï and the Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin two-hander Midnight Run, he turned his attention to something a bit riskier: Wolfs, an action-comedy he scripted himself (read: no IP) about two rival fixers who are forced to work together.

The concept, as Watts describes it, is simple enough: “For these two too-cool-for-school guys, what would burst their bubble more than meeting someone that’s basically exactly like them?” he says. But in today’s Hollywood, even a killer premise necessitates star power. In Watts’ mind, the only two actors that could fit the mold — simultaneously being the coolest guys in the room and willingly the butt of the joke — were George Clooney and Brad Pitt.

While still editing No Way Home, Watts logged on to a Zoom with Clooney who, along with longtime producing partner Grant Heslov, was reaching out across the digital ether to hear a pitch for Wolfs. “It was a very easy pitch to George: It’s like two Michael Claytons,” remembers Watts. Clooney and Heslov were sold, but they cautioned Watts, telling him, “Brad’s going to be tough. He’s very picky about his projects.’ [Clooney] is like, ‘You really want to have this really dialed in when you pitch to Brad.’ ”

Watts, set to pitch to Pitt the next day, didn’t sleep that night. Exhausted and preemptively starstruck, he was readying his pitch when Pitt popped onto his screen. “Two fixers. Same job. I get it, man,” Watts remembers Pitt saying. The director asked if Pitt would still like to hear the pitch: “Nah. George told me the whole thing. It’ll be fun. Let’s do it.” Clooney had called Pitt the day before. “And that was my pitch to Brad Pitt,” says Watts. “They were just fucking with me from the beginning.”

Filming was primarily on location in New York City in December and January. The movie takes place entirely at night, meaning the roughly 60-day shoot happened in mostly in 15-degree weather. The conditions didn’t seem to bother Clooney and Pitt, who hadn’t shared the screen since 2008’s Burn After Reading (in which they really don’t share the screen very much — for that, you have to go back to 2007’s Ocean’s Thirteen). While on set, if they weren’t running their lines or sharing anecdotes from past projects with an eager cast and crew, Watts would find Clooney and Pitt showing each other funny things they found on the internet.

“One of the great delights of the movie is they both embrace their age. There are subtle, sweet nods to aching backs and needing reading glasses,” says producer Dede Gardner, the Oscar winner and partner behind Pitt’s Plan B company.

Outside of the gravitational pull of Clooney and Pitt, a centerpiece of Wolfs is a massive chase scene that winds through Chinatown and ends at the Brooklyn Bridge. Despite the spectacles that Watts had previously directed, the shoot proved to be a new and welcome experience.

“Sometimes you do an action movie, and all the fun action stuff is given to the second-unit director,” says Watts. “On the Marvel movies, you split up the work because there’s so much to be done. Rarely do you get the Christopher Nolan opportunity to do all of it. On this one, I was like, ‘I want to shoot every single shot.’ ” From a tire screeching to a halt to star Austin Abrams flipping over the top of a BMW in a practical effect that saw the Euphoria actor hanging from various rigs in his underwear, Watts was behind the camera for it all.

“It’s the only time in my life where you hear a logline and then he says what he’s going to write and then he writes it,” says Gardner of Watts’ tenacity. “Then he goes and shoots it, then he goes and cuts it, and then he goes and delivers it. It was just the most straight line.”

Wolfs is bowing at the Venice Film Festival before heading to theaters on Sept. 20 in a limited release and then to streaming a week later on Apple. Ahead of its Lido debut, Apple announced a Wolfs follow-up. Luckily, Watts knows a thing or three about making a sequel.

Back when Watts directed his first Spider-Man entry, Homecoming, he had one indie feature under his belt — the Kevin Bacon-fronted 2015 crime thriller Cop Car. “I was just getting started and Marvel came along — and I take full creative ownership over all those films — but Spider-Man is always going to be Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s creation,” he says. “This was the chance for me to go back to my voice and my vision and my style. Wolfs is mine, and that’s a really good feeling.”

This story first appeared in the August 21 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.