It has been a week filled with good news for film fans patiently awaiting the release of Martin Scorsese’s next picture, the hotly anticipated Killers of the Flower Moon. Initially, Apple Original Films gave audiences something to cheer when the announced that Scorsese’s picture would enjoy a proper theatrical presentation, opening in theaters worldwide, in partnership with Paramount Pictures, limited on Friday, October 6, and wide on Friday, October 20, before streaming globally on AppleTV+. Right after that, though, we learned that Killers of the Flower Moon would be making its debut much earlier than October, helping to increase the hype for the drama.
One of the reasons why we are extremely excited for Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon is his cast. He’s reteaming with both Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio – his two main “muses” over the years – and bringing along Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons and Cara Jade Myers. That ensemble must have been enough firepower to attract Cannes, because the second shoe to drop for Flower Moon this week is Variety’s report that the movie will make its bow at the Cannes Film Festival on May 20.
Just need to figure out how to get to the Croisette by then.
It’s not just Scorsese’s tremendous cast for Killers of the Flower Moon. It’s the subject matter, which feels like it’s precisely in the director’s wheelhouse. Scorsese is co-writing the script for Flower Moon with Oscar-winning screenwriter Eric Roth (Dune, The Insider, Munich) for a story about the birth of the Federal Bureau of Investigations. The official Synopsis from Apple Original Films will make you very excited:
Based on David Grann’s best-selling book of the same name, “Killers of the Flower Moon” is set 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.
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That gives us Shutter Island vibes, and we personally consider that chilling murder mystery to be one of the director’s most overlooked and underappreciated works. Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen with Flower Moon.
A Cannes bow for Killers of the Flower Moon is a significant vote of confidence for Scorsese’s latest, his first with Apple Original Films after doing The Irishman with Netflix. And the fact that the movie landed a limited theatrical run, as well as a wide theatrical opening, before heading to the streaming platform is significant. It shows that filmmakers still have the opportunity to work with streamers to get their films into theaters, and that theater chains are warming up to the idea that they’ll carry streaming pictures, so long as a proper window is determined.
Or, maybe you just have to be Scorsese. That definitely helps.
Look for Killers of the Flower Moon in May if you happen to be in France. Or in October, when the movie starts to screen on October 6.