Martin Scorsese’s “Killers Of The Flower Moon” is going to be a very special movie. Even the production history is a thrilling odyssey, repeatedly riddled with complications. The restrictions caused by the corona pandemic and the budget explosions made those responsible at Paramount tremble. It eventually became too much for the studio when Martin Scorsese and screenwriter Eric Roth decided not to focus on Hollywood superstar Leonardo DiCaprio, but on Jesse Plemons (Oscar nominee for “The Power of the Dog”).
Paramount pulled out and Apple took over the lead director’s mammoth project, set in blockbuster comedy spheres with an estimated budget of between $150 and $200 million. But not only the budget is huge, because the first information about the running time of “Killers Of The Flower Moon” claims that the film should have a longer running time than “Avatar 2: The Way Of Water”.
Longer than “Avatar 2” & “The Irishman”
Noisy the film, which premieres at the Cannes Film Festival in May, will be both Scorsese’s and DiCaprio’s longest film. “Killers Of The Flower Moon” would be even longer than previously assumed, dropping the 4 o’clock mark. The film would even eclipse “The Irishman”, Martin Scorsese’s last film in terms of running time – and it lasted almost three and a half (!) hours.
We will know no later than October 19, 2023, when the film opens in German cinemas, how much stamina cinematographers and DiCaprio fans really need to bring. Incidentally, under a special agreement, Paramount will be responsible for the theatrical exploitation of the Apple production before the highly anticipated film is available for download on the AppleTV+ streaming platform.
And that’s what “Killers Of The Flower Moon” is about
Martin Scorsese’s budget thriller is based on David Grann’s bestseller The Crime: The Osage Murders and the FBI. It tells the true story of a gruesome series of murders in Osage County, Oklahoma in the 1920s. Oil deposits have been found on Native American lands, bringing them unexpected wealth.
But where there is money, there are also jealous people. In particular, the influential farmer William Hale (Robert De Niro) and his cousin Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), who is married to Osage Mollie (Lily Gladstone), want to own the black gold. Mysteriously, deaths among members of the tribe are on the rise. This leads to a large-scale investigation by an entirely new police force: the FBI. Detective Tom White (Jesse Plemons) is drawn into a maelstrom of corruption and murder as he investigates…