Martin Scorsese is weighing in with another lengthy epic, with Killers Of The Flower Moon comfortably passing the three hour mark.
As far back as last summer, Cannes was being touted as the world premiere date for Martin Scorsese’s highly-anticipated serial killer period drama, Killers Of The Flower Moon. Apple has financed the drama, which has a reported budget of $200m, a star-studded cast, with Scorsese seemingly having carte blanche to make the film that he wants to.
The veteran director may not have to overly concern himself with a studio’s wishes for a slimmed-down runtime; after all, the film is going primarily to Apple TV+ where you can enjoy its sizeable length from the comfort of your sofa. However, the film’s current length is reportedly proving to be a problem for the Cannes Film Festival with organisers struggling to program the film due to its current unwieldy running time of 3 hours and 20 minutes. Shorter than The Irishman, sure, but still testing the sturdiest of buttocks.
The period drama starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jesse Plemons, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro ‘takes place in 1920s Oklahoma and depicts a string of brutal murders of Osage Nation Native Americans, which came to be known as the Reign of Terror. The Osage Nation, who were the richest people per capita in the world, were killed one by one after oil was discovered on their land. As the death toll rose, the newly-created FBI took up the case and unraveled a chilling conspiracy and one of the most monstrous crimes in American history.’
The Irishman, Scorsese’s last feature film, released in 2019 at a whopping 3 hours and 29 minutes, premiering at the New York Film Festival. The current runtime for Killers Of The Flower Moon isn’t yet said to be locked down though, with Scorsese still working with Thelma Schoonmaker, his long-time editor, to finalise the cut.
Perhaps the movie will come down in length some more, perhaps Cannes will find room for the film, time will tell. But if you’re planning to watch the film at home, you may want to block out a significant portion of time to enjoy it. To do that though, you’ll need a release date which as of right now, we still don’t have. We’ll bring you more on this story as we hear it.
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