APPLE UNLEASHES CREATIVITY: BRAD PITT AND GEORGE CLOONEY TEAM UP IN ‘WOLFS’

Apple has certainly had its fair share of innovation in technology and entertainment. Today the technology giant has once again captured the spotlight with the release of the trailer for its latest movie, Wolfs, the action-comedy starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney. The movie is sure to be a hit.

APPLE'S BOLD FORAY INTO BIG-BUDGET CINEMA

As theatres get squeezed out by streaming, Apple has attempted yet another big-budget blockbuster with Wolfs. Set to premiere on 20 September, the film will debut in theatres before landing on Apple TV+.

A REUNION OF CINEMATIC TITANS

Brad Pitt and George Clooney are still regarded as two of Hollywood’s most charismatic and talented male actors, with their on-screen chemistry having first been vindicated in Ocean’s 11, and poised to be returned in Wolfs. With a supporting cast made up of Amy Ryan, Austin Abrams and Poorna Jagannathan, it’s directed by Jon Watts.

MORE THAN JUST A MOVIE: APPLE'S STRATEGY UNVEILED

In this, Wolfs is distinctive in that most movie productions proceed opposite to what Apple has done. Wolfs is a film produced by Apple, just as many other movies are produced for Apple. It is one of numerous projects supported and financed by Apple, part of the company’s multifaceted entertainment division. Apple financed the movie in 2021 – in other words, they assigned people to write a script, hire talent, build sets, purchase equipment, and so forth, all the while paying workers whose efforts and skills enabled a movie to be produced from inception to release. It’s a highly unusual way for a company to create something that has long been created in a traditional manner, with funds raised before production and the following paid out. Consider that Brad Pitt and George Clooney took pay cuts to make Wolfs; the point here is that the actors understood that the production’s goal was to make a film that could be seen by people in theatres around the world, helped by Sony’s distribution, not limited to Apple devices.

APPLE'S CINEMATIC JOURNEY: LOOKING BACK AND AHEAD

Wolfs is one of several high-profile Apple Original Films – including Killers of the Flower Moon, a murder mystery thriller starring Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, based on the book by David Grann; Napoleon, an epic biopic starring Joaquin Phoenix as the French emperor; Argylle, a globe-trotting spy thriller based on a upcoming novel by Ellery Queen; and Fly Me to the Moon, about the Apollo 11 mission landing on the moon, starring Cate Blanchett and Kyle Chandler – that Apple says is raising the bar yet again in cinema. The company made box-office duds with The Banker (2019), Greyhound (2020), and Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2022). None of that has, apparently, deterred Apple, which sees its investment in high-quality productions as bolstering its streaming service, Apple TV+, over time.

ANALYZING APPLE'S BOX OFFICE STRATEGY

Cinema-world entry also helps Apple build up competitive value around its streaming platform, Apple TV+. The profitability, in terms of box-office receipts, of cinematic products that Apple produces might not always compensate for their production and marketing costs. But what these products do for Apple TV+ is no small matter, even though the value they add to the streaming service cannot be measured in any obvious way. Since Apple does not share viewership or subscriber numbers for its streaming service, it’s hard to pin down the direct impact of its cinematic projects on streaming success. However, the move towards collaborative or simultaneous theatrical and streaming release models seem to reveal a future where the borders between different media through which we consume entertainment are eroding.

EXPLORING THE CORE OF APPLE'S SUCCESS

At the centre of Apple’s attempts to break into cinema is its innovation-at-all-costs ethos. With an actor cast of stars, director and cinematography, and financial backing from one of the world’s biggest companies, Wolfs represents an attempt to seize cinema in the hopes of expanding beyond the tech world. Apple is leveraging its technology prowess to make a mark in storytelling, whether by producing a new device or new films. By making movies such as ‘Wolfs’, Apple is putting together experiences, not just putting products on screen. All of this means that Apple isn’t just plotting its Hollywood future, or even its tech history: it’s scripting itself into the future of cinema more broadly. In making narrative and technology so intertwined, what might come next from Apple is anyone’s guess. But one thing is for certain: there is much to be gained from being both the storyteller and the story.