Filmmaker Martin Scorsese either has no f*cks to give or just has the power and influence to make his movie as long as he wants. Following the longest-running film of his career (and most expensive), 2019’s “The Irishman,” which ran three hours and 29 minutes, Scorsese is following up that lengthy movie with his second-longest film ever, the upcoming “Killers Of The Flower Moon,” which has been revealed to have a run time of three hours and 26 minutes (about twenty-some minutes shorter that was recently rumored).
Deadline confirmed the lengthy run time from Paramount Pictures and Apple TV+ as it is a joint release. Paramount will release the movie in theaters on October 6, 2023, and Apple TV+ will release it on their streaming service at a TBD date afterward. Presumably, it gets a least a few weeks in a would-be prestigious theatrical run, but then it’s all Apple, who foot most of the bill (said to cost around $200 million, which would likely be his second most expensive after “The Irishman”).
Before that, however, the film will make its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, so it’ll be a long (but welcome) year hearing about Scorsese’s new film, a lengthy build-up that studios seem to be favoring more and more of late, rather than the late December release to try and disrupt the Oscar favorites.
“Killers Of The Flower Moon” centers on a series of 1920s Oklahoma murders in the Osage Nation committed after oil was discovered on tribal land. Leonardo DiCaprio, who also serves as producer, stars alongside Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons, Lily Gladstone, and Brendan Fraser. The film marks the seventh collaboration between Scorsese and DiCaprio as well as the eleventh collaboration between Scorsese and De Niro.
John Lithgow, Tantoo Cardinal, Pat Healy, musicians Jack White, Jason Isbell, and Sturgill Simpson are also among the names of a huge cast. Either way, the film is a big prestige drama play all the way, and Paramount and Apple are definitely banking on it being a frontrunner in the 2023/2024 Oscar race. That said, “The Irishman” was nominated for ten Oscars and won none, perhaps a technical achievement that was rewarded with nods, but maybe that long running time felt like too much of a tax. Surely Paramount and Apple are concerned about that too, but obviously not enough to make Scorsese bend his running time knee.
