I’ve been emailing around and making calls the entire week to write this article. In fact, it ate up about half my day today. To say that Apple is impenetrable when it comes to Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” would be an understatement. They’re impossible to reach, not even for a comment.
After becoming the first streamer to win Best Picture at this past March’s Oscars, Apple basically skipped this year’s awards season, mostly due to having no contenders to push: “Emancipation” failed. “Cha Cha Real Smooth” failed. They could have released Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon,” but it didn’t seem ready at the time, with a rough cut test-screened last November. I heard Apple will be releasing it this summer.
Regardless, I’ve had to rely less on Apple and more on sources that directly worked on “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Two sources that I found are saying the exact same thing: World premiere at Cannes, then fall festivals and finally, a November theatrical release in the US.
From my understanding, given the strict streaming rules in France, I don’t think “Killers of the Flower Moon” will be in Cannes competition. I’d love to be proven wrong, but I don’t see there being any way for Scorsese to compete for the Palme d’Or. I presume the film will be shown out of competition.
You’d have to go back to the mid-‘80s when “After Hours” was in official competition to find the last time Scorsese screened a full-length feature at Cannes. Scorsese went on to win the Best Director Prize that year. He also famously won the Palme d’Or in 1976 for “Taxi Driver”
If you remember, additional shooting on the film took place in Pawhuska, Oklahoma back in May. A rough cut of Scorsese’s film was screened for Apple and Paramount execs in July. One person told me, “it is a bravura piece of filmmaking in all areas, and with a social consciousness, as the book was, at its heart”.
‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ was all set to have a teaser released in August, with a late fall release eyes, and then came Scorsese’s sudden call for more reshoots in NYC, mostly having to do with the film’s coda. Production on “Killers of the Flower Moon” ended almost 12 months ago.
When the film premieres at Cannes then it would have been a whopping 20 months since shooting wrapped. If the film is indeed released in November then it would have been close to two years since post-production began.
For the most part, Scorsese’s films have had a rather lengthy post-production process, but a November release for “Killers of the Flower Moon” would break his post-production length record:
Shutter Island (20 months), Silence (19 months), The Irishman (18 months), Hugo (15 months), The Age of Innocence (15 months), The Departed (13 months), The Aviator (13 months), Goodfellas (13 months), and Wolf of Wall Street (11 months)