Brad Pitt and George Clooney took a pay cut to ensure their next film could receive a cinema release.
The pair, who have worked together previously in films like Oceans Eleven and Burn After Reading are reuniting once more for an as yet untitled film.
The thriller, helmed by Spider Man: No Way Home director Jon Watts, was won by Apple Original Movies after a major bidding war. It’s described as a “tale of two lone-wolf fixers assigned to the same job.”
Speaking to Deadline, Clooney revealed that they’d taken a pay cut and that he believes films can co-exist in cinemas and on streaming platforms together.
He said: “It was an exciting time because it got to be one of those weird bidding wars which happen every once in a while, and it ended up being pretty extreme, and Apple came in with a really big number for Brad and I.”
He said: “And we said we’d like to take less as long as we can guarantee that we can have a theatrical release, and they said great.
“I do think that there’s a way that we can all co-exist. You know, I do think that there is a version of this that we can do.
“There’s a lot of movies that are fun to still see on a big screen. You know, the film I’m doing with Julia [Roberts] right now is a Universal film, and it’s a comedy, and comedies are fun to see in a room full of people.”
George Clooney most recently directed and starred in The Midnight Sky on Netflix.
In a three-star review of the film, NME wrote: “As an exercise in visionary filmmaking, The Midnight Sky succeeds admirably, and Clooney’s seasoned and trusted approach to working with a tight-knit ensemble of performers shines through.
“If only these strengths weren’t undercut by a need to strike a commercial chord with audiences, we’d be faced with a far more bold and robust piece of sci-fi filmmaking.”
