Paramount partners with Apple

[peanut80]

Arnz

I wasn't sure where to place this

At same time , I can't iamgine how someone came up with budget claim for this film ??

As having read the book, the scenery shouldn't cost much

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[arnzilla]

Thanks, Peanut. I can't find anything from the twitter account of @richardrushfield. Perhaps he deleted it? He has a subscription site, so maybe he posted the rumor there.

[Zotyto]

Hugo had a $150-170M budget, The Wolf of Wall Street was around $100M, Silence $50M, The Irishman $125-175M. So $225M seems exaggerated, even for Scorsese. So the number is probably fake news, but the essence of the story (budget concerns and a possible move to Netflix) could be true. Remember wat Emma Tillinger-Koskoff said at the NYFF: "It's always a budget thing. So, we're crunching and trying to fit into a very nice and generous box." They were supposed to start filming in March, according to some sources, but there hasn't been any official casting news yet (besides DiCaprio and De Niro), and if I'm not mistaken, the project hasn't been officially greenlit either.

[peanut80]

Well, I sure hope that the project is greenlit and does start filming by March/April

[ScorseseFan]

Never heard of TheAnkler before - what this Richard Rushfield runs - but it seems kinda right-wing and trolly. Got to access one article about the Oscars and it's mainly a lot of pettily calling people "idiots" & how they're wrong. And Jeff Sneider has a history of making stuff up from the vaguest of rumors.
Could the budget have blown up that much? Sure.
Would Netflix be willing to foot the bill for another Scorsese epic? Possible. Though since The Irishman left the Oscars with zero wins would Netflix really be up to spending well over a quarter billion (if you add in marketing + Oscar campaigning) for another shot? I don't know. They had more Oscar success with MARRIAGE STORY and that was 1/10th the cost.

Guess this is a wait & see what real news journalists say.
More than a bigger Budget I could see the unfettered running times Netflix allows vs. traditional theatrical distribution would be the larger draw for Scorsese.
There's no questions Marty's films have gotten progressively longer post 2000 and maybe after having had the chance to make a 200+ minute long movie he'd rather not settle for under 3 hours.

Personally I'm still hoping for a traditional theatrical release BUT I'd rather have the movie more than anything.

[peanut80]

ScorseseFan

Thanks for more info regarding source of this rumor

Like you , the main thing , I want is the film to happen whether by theatrical release or Netflix

[ScorseseFan]

Obviously the film is not shooting right now because of the pandemic but if The Wall Street Journal can be trusted (big if) the film may end up being picked up by Netflix, AppleTV, OR could stay at Paramount and become a joint venture with another studio (maybe Warner Brothers?) splitting the production cost cause the budget has hit $200 million.
If Paramount isn't able to make a co-deal with another studio - all of the big studios are probably going to be more risk averse for the immediate future because of everything getting shut down for however long this takes - I hope Scorsese goes with Netflix again. Hopefully they'll give him the same deal he got with THE IRISHMAN and we get a solid theatrical run, a super-long running time (watch Scorsese break 4 hours) and a deal with Criterion Collection to get an actual Blu-Ray printed.

Because of the Coronavirus pandemic I don't see KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON actually starting shooting until maybe March 2021 so I think we should anticipate this to be a late 2022 release now.

Hope everyone is staying safe.

www.indiewire.com/2020/04/martin-scorsese-talks-apple-netflix-distribute-killers-of-the-flower-moon-1202224149/

[Zotyto]

www.indiewire.com/2020/05/paul-schrader-proposes-online-film-festival-netflix-amazon-1202229767/

From an interview with Paul Schrader:

What do you hear from Scorsese?
I talked to him a little bit about this. He’s waiting like everybody else. He assumes his film will get made. He has the money and everything. But it can’t get made until the restrictions ease up.

[ScorseseFan]

Looks like KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON will be a Paramount/Apple co-production.
If this goes through Apple will handle the majority of the financing and will be the ones working with the production team.
Paramount will handle the marketing and theatrical distribution of the movie making sure KILLERS gets a wide theatrical run worldwide.
Then after the theatrical run the film will only be available through the Apple TV+ streaming service.

deadline.com/2020/05/killers-of-the-flower-moon-martin-scorsese-leonardo-dicaprio-robert-de-niro-apple-paramount-1202904816/

So Scorsese will get his huge budget because Apple is dying for a big must-see original film like Netflix was when they acquired THE IRISHMAN.
I wonder if Apple agreeing to work with Paramount and abide by traditional movie theater stipulations (whatever those will be after Covid-19 is a mystery... I think the theatrical window will dramatically shrink once audiences become too accustomed to PVOD releases) to give the movie a real wide release was the key factor in the production going with them and not Netflix.
It's exciting to hear the film will get a traditional theatrical run. I assume this likely means KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON will have a runtime between 150 to 180 minutes and not be as long as THE IRISHMAN.
Putting on my predicting hat, I figure if the US can get a much better handle on Covid-19 by the end of the year then I would guess the plan would be for FLOWER MOON to start filming next Spring - maybe March 2021 - and aim for a theatrical release in October, November or December 2022.
Two to four months after the theatrical release date instead of getting a home video disc release it would then go to AppleTV+ where it would be an exclusive.
From there I wonder if Scorsese has worked out some deal like he did with THE IRISHMAN where after a certain period of time - like a year or two - the film could get a physical media release through Criterion or some label like it.

[arnzilla]

www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/apple-partner-paramount-martin-scorseses-killers-flower-moon-1287944

When Paramount picked up the project in June 2019, sources say the studio was intent on making it with a price tag in the $150 million range — but then the budget ballooned to $225 million. Paramount head Jim Gianopulos pulled back the reins, with sources saying he was ready to go to a budget of $180 million... Scorsese then turned to Netflix, which backed The Irishman, personally reaching out to film head Scott Stuber. According to sources, Netflix was prepared to take it on for $215 million. But that may not have been enough. MGM considered the project before Apple finally jumped in.

[arnzilla]

www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/behind-martin-scorseses-killers-flower-moon-apple-deal-1296394

Long before the pandemic shut Hollywood down, Paramount was tentatively prepared to back Killers of the Flower Moon, based on the David Grann non-fiction book about the 1920s murders of Osage Nation Native Americans. The studio wanted the budget — then about $180 million with a tax credit from New Mexico — pared down to about $150 million. No one actually believed that Scorsese actually would have stuck to that number but at least it would have let studio execs fantasize that costs might be kept in check.

Sources say things changed when the director and his star decided to revise the script. Originally DiCaprio was playing the good guy working for the then-nascent FBI. In the revised version, DiCaprio would portray villain Robert De Niro’s nephew, torn between love and the evil machinations of his uncle. A source with knowledge of the situation says Paramount felt that turned the film into a moody and less commercial character study — “smaller scale; same budget.”

While a huge wager on the film no longer seemed like such a good idea, relinquishing a Scorsese movie was so painful for the top Paramount executive team that one studio insider told me, as this drama unfolded, “We’re not making it but we’re not not making it.”