KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON (2022): Latest Martin Scorsese/Leonardo DiCaprio Collaboration Shifts Release Date

Scorsese and DiCaprio’s Oscar Bait Will Have to Wait (For Release)

Acclaimed filmmaker Martin Scorsese‘s latest collaboration with star Leonardo DiCaprio, Killers of the Flower Moon, has shifted its planned release to 2023.

Streamer giant Apple’s Oscar glory earlier this year with their hit movie, CODA, seemed destined to repeat itself with one of their latest projects, Killers of the Flower Moon. With director Martin Scorsese and star Leonardo DiCaprio at the center, that upcoming film seemed like a shoo-in for a Best Picture nomination at next year’s Oscars. Unfortunately, the prestigious picture has been postponed to a 2023 release.

Scorsese’s latest is a Western which has a great cast including DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, John Lithgow, Jesse Plemons and the always fantastic Brendan Fraser. Penned by Eric Roth, the picture is based on the high-profile book, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. When Scorsese did his last prestige movie which was released in 2019, The Irishman, it resulted in a slew of Oscar nods for its high-profile cast and production members. Killers of the Flower Moon could follow in that Netflix movie’s footsteps with a lot of nominations, but we’ll have to wait a couple of Academy Award seasons to see for sure.

The high-profile latest collaboration between Scorsese and DiCaprio always had a 2023 release date in mind until it was moved to 2022 when Will Smith’s shenanigans at the Oscars changed the outlook on Smith’s potentially Oscar-worthy slave drama, Emancipation. DiCaprio is fresh off good reviews from last year’s Netflix hit, Don’t Look Up, which secured an Oscar nod for Best Picture of 2021. Many think he got snubbed for a Best Actor nomination for the film so, perhaps, he’ll get another nod for Killers of the Flower Moon during Oscar season 2024.

Killers of the Flower Moon now has plenty of time to play the festival circuits and, even way before that, be put together properly in the editing room. Brendan Fraser’s upcoming performance in the movie will certainly be one of its key interests to movie-goers. Could Fraser finally secure an Oscar nomination for his work in the picture? It could even happen sooner for Fraser as he is in the hugely (no pun intended) anticipated upcoming film, The Whale.

Apple has some Oscar hopefuls in the interim while we await Scorsese’s latest. May I suggest a memo to audiences and Oscar voters to look at the quality of Cha Cha Real Smooth which is now streaming on Apple? It would be nice to see nods for star Dakota Johnson and Best Screenplay, if not for Best Picture as well for that acclaimed dramedy.

Also, in the meantime, Scorsese and DiCaprio fans may want to check out arguably their most popular collaboration, 2006’s The Departed, which took home the gold at the Oscars.

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