Recently came the news that filmmaker Martin Scorsese’s drama-thriller “Killers of the Flower Moon” was still being worked on with Scorsese and Oscar winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker still cutting the film well over a year after it had finished shooting.
Eric Roth and Scorsese penned the script based on David Grann’s best-selling book, which explores the serial murder of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation during the 1920s. The murders prompted the newly-formed FBI to investigate.
Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons, Brendan Fraser, John Lithgow and Lily Gladstone co-star in the film which was shot in Oklahoma with the co-operation of members of the real-life Osage Nation.
Budgeted at an eye-watering $200 million, the project was shot from April-October 2021 with reported reshoots in mid-2022. Today, Showbiz 411 reports that the intended place the film had hoped to debut – the Cannes Film Festival – can’t handle the film it’s current form:
“I’m told by sources that ‘Flower Moon’ is currently clocking in at three hours, twenty minutes… Cannes can’t program such a long film, so they’re waiting to see how this all works out.”
Whilst a 200-minute film may be too long for Cannes, it’s in line with Scorsese’s recent output with multiple movies pushing over the 160-minute mark along with “The Wolf of Wall Street” running for 180 and “The Irishman” at 209.
The Apple Studios and Paramount Pictures release has long been planning to debut at a festival before a wide theatrical release followed by a streaming release on the Apple TV+ service.
