George Clooney was paid “millions and millions and millions of dollars less” than it was reported for his role in ‘Wolfs’.

The 63-year-old actor stars alongside his long-time friend Brad Pitt, 60, in the new movie, which tells of loan fixers who get assigned to the same job – and the New York Times reported the A-listers were paid more than $35 million each for their work in the action comedy.

But while speaking alongside Brad at the Venice Film Festival ahead of the thriller’s world premiere, George has now said about the newspaper story: “(It was) an interesting article and whatever her source was for our salary, it is millions and millions and millions of dollars less than what was reported.

“And I am only saying that because I think it’s bad for our industry if that’s what people think is the standard bearer for salaries.

“I think that’s terrible – it’ll make it impossible to make films."

George’s comments come amid Apple’s decision to not give ‘Wolfs’ a wide cinema release in the US.

Instead, the streamer has chosen to show it on a limited number of movie screens for one week before making the film available on its online service.

George said in Venice about the decision – which could have a huge impact on the movie’s profits: “Yes, we wanted it to be released (in cinemas.)

“We’ve had some bumps along the way, that happens.

“When I did ‘The Boys in the Boat’, we did it for MGM, and then it ended up being for Amazon and we didn’t get a foreign release at all, which was a surprise.

“There are elements of this that we are figuring out… we’re all in this industry and we’re trying to find our way post-Covid and everything else, and so there’s some bumps along the way.

“It is a bummer of course, but on the other hand, a lot of people are going to see the film and we are getting a release in a few hundred theatres, so we’re getting a release. But yeah, it would’ve been nice if we to have a wide release.”

‘Wolfs’ will be in cinemas from 20 September and available to stream on Apple TV+ a week later.