With the Oscars coming into view, and the end of the 2023 awards season, we turn out attention to the next round of movies.
Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” is at the top of all lists for this year’s new crop. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, “Flower Moon” is set in the West in the 1920s, and it’s based on the book by David Grann. The story concerns the real life murders of Native Americans in Oklahoma when their land is discovered to be sitting on oil fields.
I’m told that the Cannes Film Festival is chomping at the bit to premiere the film, not in competition and not for opening night. It would be just the prestige of that trio walking the red carpet.
So what’s the issue? I’m told by sources that “Flower Moon” is currently clocking in at three hours, twenty minutes. This is nothing new for Scorsese, whose every new film starts at super sized until Oscar winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker summons a succinct two and a half hour final cut out of Scorsese’s masterful shots. But Cannes can’t program such a long film, so they’re waiting to see how this all works out.
So is Apple. They wrote the check for all this. And they’ve got to promise Cannes the film will have a real theatrical run before streaming, and in every country, especially France. Stay tuned…
