The Cannes Film Festival has now confirmed that Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of The Flower Moon” will be the celebrated auteur’s longest film to date.
Set to have its world premiere on the Croisette on Saturday, May 20th, at the Grand Theatre Lumiere, the film is officially clocking in at a runtime of 234 minutes (3hr 54mins).
That’s 25 minutes longer than his previous longest film “The Irishman” (209 mins), and nearly a full hour longer than his second longest film “The Wolf of Wall Street” (180 mins).
Speaking with Variety, Cannes Film Festival’s longtime director Thierry Fremaux confirmed the runtime saying “All I know is that it’s only five minutes more than ‘Once Upon a Time in America'”. He’s likely referring to the shorter ‘European cut’ of that Sergio Leone classic, which clocks in at 229 minutes.
Fremaux also confirms that with Apple having announced an exclusive theatrical release window in France for the feature, it now qualifies for the Cannes competition and a formal invite to do so has been offered. Fremaux adds he’s: “waiting to hear their decision. We have until the last minute.”
The film’s director Scorsese and actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Cara Jade Myers, JaNae Collins, Jillian Dion, and Tantoo Cardinal are all expected to show up at the premiere.
Based on David Grann’s best-selling book and written for the screen by Eric Roth and Scorsese, the story unfolds in 1920s Oklahoma and depicts the serial murder of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation – a string of brutal crimes that came to be known as the ‘Reign of Terror’.
The film will open in the U.S. in limited release on Friday, October 6th, followed by a wide release two weeks later on October 20th and then followed by an Apple TV+ global streaming launch.
