For whatever it’s worth, this could be a sign that a rough cut has been screened. During the weekend I received two messages, both about Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” being privately screened to a few lucky people. Paramount/Apple-connected people.
An excerpt from Person #1:
I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about “Killers of The Flower Moon”. Paramount and Apple are very excited. Leonardo Dicaprio, Jesse Plemons and Lily Gladstone’s performances are top-notch. Oscar noms for all 3 of them. Deniro’s role is shorter than it is in the book.
Person #2:
FANTASTIC buzz flying around for “Killers of the Flower Moon”. Although I’m skeptical, I’ve heard the phrase “Scorsese’s career best”. Leo is a conflicted villain. Deniro is a bad guy, but in a much smaller role. Jesse Plemons is the good guy. Still being edited, but some people have seen a cut.
While production wrapped last October, Scorsese is known for taking a long time in the editing room — his 2016 movie Silence was initially targeting a late 2015 release, and Scorsese pushed it back to 2016 as he wasn’t satisfied with the edit. The movie saw a limited release in late December and up until October/November, there was no word on if the movie would even make it. It seems like we’ll be luckier this time around, and this year’s Oscars will be a clash of the Titans, with Scorsese, Spielberg (The Fabelmans), and David Fincher (The Killer) having new movies out.
And that is not even it, because also chiming in will be Damien Chazelle (Babylon), Sam Mendes (Empire of Light), Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin), Alejandro G. Iñarritu (Bardo), Luca Guadagnino (Bones and All), Jordan Peele (Nope), Darren Aronofsky (The Whale), Noah Baumbach (White Noise), and many more. Unfortunately, Next Goal Wins (Taika Waititi), Asteroid City (Wes Anderson), Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos), The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer), and Disappointment Blvd. (Ari Aster) have all been bumped to 2023.
Killers of the Flower Moon stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Jesse Plemons, Lily Gladstone, John Lithgow, Brendan Fraser, and Robert DeNiro, whose role is reportedly smaller than in the book. It was written by Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese, and it’s based on David Grann’s book of the same name.