Martin Scorsese’s epic Western crime drama “Killers of the Flower Moon” is set to hit cinemas in less than two weeks. So, with his actors still unable to do press for the movie due to the ongoing strike, the publicity burden has been shouldered by him.
Scorsese has spent much of his press tour thus far discussing the state of cinema, and told The Hindustan Times today the recent Barbenheimer phenomenon: “Does offer some hope for a different cinema to emerge, different from what’s been happening in the last 20 years.”
He also spoke about his own film’s massive 206-minute runtime which clocks in twelve minutes longer than “Titanic” and on par with “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – Extended Edition”.
Scorsese says his film was very much made for the big screen and that lengthy runtime is part of his desire that audiences give it the respect it deserves:
“Are we intending to make a blockbuster? No, we’re making a movie, which should watched on the big screen. Other pictures I made? Maybe not. Sometimes, it’s the strength of the picture too, if it plays well on a smaller screen, that’s interesting.
‘Killers’ could play on a small screen, but in order to truly immerse yourself, you should take out the time. People say it’s three hours, but come on, you can sit in front of the TV and watch something for five hours.
Also, there are many people who watch theatre for 3.5 hours. There are real actors on stage, you can’t get up and walk around. You give it that respect, give cinema some respect.”
The $200 million-budgeted film takes place at the turn of the 20th century when oil brought a fortune to the Osage Nation. The wealth of these Native Americans immediately attracted white interlopers, who manipulated, extorted, and stole as they could before resorting to murder.
Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons, John Lithgow, Brendan Fraser, Tantoo Cardinal, Cara Jade Myers, JaNae Collins, and Jillian Dion star in the film Scorsese co-wrote with Eric Roth based on David Grann’s best-selling book.
“Killers of the Flower Moon” opens in cinemas on October 20th.
